Advanced Breakpoints and Tracepoints in C#

The Role of Debugging in Development

Tim starts by emphasizing that a large chunk of a developer's work involves fixing issues—bugs that creep into our apps. Efficient debugging means faster progress, and the Visual Studio toolset provides advanced techniques to streamline that process.

What Is a Breakpoint?

The simplest C breakpoint is inserted by clicking on the far left margin of your code file. When execution reaches that line, it pauses. This lets you inspect the current runtime context—viewing variables, stepping through code, and understanding exactly what’s happening behind the scenes. Tim notes that while many developers are familiar with this basic feature, there’s a rich world beyond it that often goes unused.

Tracepoints and Logging to the Output Window

Tim explains how to insert a Tracepoint by right-clicking the gutter and choosing from the dropdown menu. A Tracepoint doesn’t pause execution—instead, it logs a message to the Output Window, such as:

The value of i is {i}

By surrounding a variable with curly braces, its value is printed. This is extremely handy when you want visibility into a loop without pressing continue repeatedly. It’s similar to using a log statement but managed through the debugger interface rather than hardcoded into your method. Tim also shows how to configure this action to optionally pause or continue.

Temporary Breakpoints: One-and-Done Debugging

Next, Tim shows how to create a temporary breakpoint—easily recognized by a small clock icon. Once it’s hit during execution, it automatically disables itself. This is useful when you only need to verify a statement is reached once, helping reduce noise in your debugging session. Tim demonstrates enabling and disabling such breakpoints without deleting them, giving you flexible control over the debug view.

Conditional Breakpoints with Expressions

This section covers perhaps one of the most powerful features: conditional breakpoints. Tim sets one using the condition i > 10, meaning the breakpoint will only trigger when the expression evaluates to true. In the properties box of the breakpoint, you can select conditions like:

• Hit Count

• Expression

• Filter

These allow you to apply granular logic to breakpoints, ensuring that you pause only when meaningful criteria are met. This is especially helpful in long loops or when inspecting anomalies in your code's behavior.

Dependent Breakpoints: Linking Debug Logic

When you need one breakpoint to trigger only after another has been hit, Tim suggests using dependent breakpoints. This is ideal in multi-threaded apps or complex module interactions, where instances of a method might only go haywire after a prior condition is met.

In the Breakpoint Settings, Tim shows how to select a function name and configure another breakpoint to activate only if that function was reached. This ensures that follow-up logic in a project doesn’t get inspected unless earlier behavior warrants it—keeping your debugger focused and efficient.

The Breakpoint Window and Managing Multiple Breakpoints

Tim opens the Breakpoints Window via Debug > Windows > Breakpoints or Ctrl + Alt + B. This window lists every active breakpoint in the project, and offers tools like:

• Export/Import: Save breakpoints as an XML file and create reusable debugging configurations.

• Labeling: Add labels like “test” or “demo” to categorize by purpose.

• Grouping: Assign breakpoints to groups like “critical errors” or “normal flow.” You can then enable or disable whole groups, useful when juggling different evaluation scenarios.

Tim also shows how to set a default group, so any new breakpoint automatically joins that context.

Function Breakpoints by Name

What if you want to break on any call to a method, no matter where it's defined? That’s where function breakpoints come in. Tim inputs the function name PrintInfo and demonstrates how the debugger triggers as soon as any version of this method is called, regardless of where it resides—even across different files or DLLs.

This is perfect for debugging heavily overloaded methods, or Visual Studio Code projects with shared method names used in multiple contexts.

Break When Value Changes: Advanced Watchpoints

Near the end of the video, Tim touches on a niche but powerful feature: break when value changes. You can right-click a variable in the Locals Window and select this option. However, it only works in limited circumstances—typically for tracked properties on the managed heap in class instances.

System limitations apply:

• x64 architecture: Up to four tracked variables.

• ARM64: Two.

• ARM32: Only one.

This hardware-level tracking gives deep visibility into when a variable's state changes, though it’s rarely used due to these constraints.

Final Thoughts

Wrapping up, Tim reiterates a key point: mastering Visual Studio’s advanced debugging tools makes you a faster, more effective developer. From tracepoints to conditional breakpoints, from hovering over variables to using the debug view, all of these tools help you tackle bugs with confidence.

Conclusion

By walking through Tim Corey’s full video of breakpoints in Visual Studio, you now have a detailed understanding of how to utilize these tools to refine your debugging workflow. Every bug can be solved—you just need the right debugger strategy.