Debugging an IEnumerable method

Question

I have a method with returns an IEnumerable and I\'m trying to debug the code inside that method.

Each time I step through the code in Visual Studi

Answer 1

It should be no problem to debug IEnumerable implementation... May be you just using wrong .dll (if you enumerator is in external library)...

You may try a simple test console, and go from here

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        foreach (String foo in new Foo())
        {
            Console.WriteLine(foo);
        }
    }
}

class Foo : IEnumerable<String>
{
    #region IEnumerable<string> Members

    public IEnumerator<string> GetEnumerator()
    {
        yield return "fake # 1";
        yield return "fake # 2";
    }

    #endregion

    #region IEnumerable Members

    System.Collections.IEnumerator System.Collections.IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
        return GetEnumerator();
    }

    #endregion
}

Answer 2

That method only gets hit when you use the items in the IEnumerable. Remember, IEnumerable lazy loads the items, so just because you're calling the method that returns the IEnumerable, doesn't mean the method is actually getting called at that point. If you want it to get hit right when you call it, add a ToList() at the end of your method call:

var result = myEnumerableMethod().ToList();