Visual Studio debugger tips & tricks (for C/C++ projects)

Question

I\'m interested in tips and tricks regarding debugging a C/C++ project in Visual Studio\'s debugger. I recently found out that if you have a pointer to a certain data type, let\

Answer 1

I really like the possibility to tweak the Debugger display of types and structures through AutoExp.dat. The file is located at

..\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Packages\Debugger\autoexp.dat

and allows to define own templates for the display of data during debugging:

While debugging, Data Tips and items in the Watch and Variable windows are automatically expanded to show their most important elements. The expansion follows the format given by the rules in this file. You can add rules for your types or change the predefined rules.

The file is full of good examples and you can easily adapt certain templates to your own needs or add new ones for your own classes.