How do you watch or evaluate an expression in xcode like visual studio's immediate window?

Question

In MS visual studio we just right click add watch.

How does one do this in Xcode?

Answer 1

Use the po command in the Debug area

Set up a breakpoint on the relevant area of code, then when the program stops at the breakpoint, enter commands in the Console in the Debug Area. The relevant command is po (print object) followed by the expression you want to evaluate.

If the Debug window is not visible in XCode, you can show it via the top menu:

'View' -> 'Debug Area' -> 'Activate Console' (XCode v8.x)

Example

To evaluate an expression like var1/var2 where var1 and var2 are both doubles, enter the following in the Console:

po var1/var2

The Console will return something like:

(double) $2 = 3.085 [no Objective-C description available]

Showing object properties

You can also return a particular property of an object currently used in the code at that breakpoint:

po [bankInfo city]

And it will return something like:

(id) $4 = 0x000069e8 Testville

Note though that the Console doesn't seem to like the dot notation and prefers the square brackets when applicable. For example, this returns an error for me:

po bankInfo.city

I hope this is what you've been looking for.