Watch Panels

The Watch Panels are two separate panels in the top-level Main Window. A watch is a variable name or expression to evaluate the value of when the target JVM is suspended, for example after a step. The following are valid expressions that the debugger can watch:
  1. Local variables in the current scope.
  2. Object (This) fields in the current scope.
  3. objectRef.fieldName where objectRef is in the current scope (fieldName can be a private field).
  4. arrayRef[i] or arrayRef[2] where arrayRef and i are in the current scope.
  5. fullPackageName.className.staticField where className has been loaded into the target JVM.
If an expression can not be evaluated, then "(could not evaluate)" is displayed in green.

Watches are organized by Watch Panels. The debugger contains two Watch Panels:

A Watch Panel displays a table of watches.

table

Each row in the table represents a watch. Each watch has the following attributes (which are the columns of the table). [Shift] Click on a column header to sort the table in [descending] ascending order according to that column. To change a value of a primitive variable (boolean, byte, short, int, long, character, float, double), double click on the corresponding value cell and enter the new value followed by hitting the Enter key (or hit the Escape key to cancel the editing). The new value string must validate in order for the change to be made.

A Tool Tip is displayable for each watch row in the table. For object references, the Tool Tip displays the object's fields in the inheritance hierarchy. For array references, the Tool Tip displays the beginning array elements. For string references, the Tool Tip displays the beginning string characters. The number of lines displayed in a Tool Tip is configurable in the Global Settings Dialog.

While the target JVM is running, an hour glass cursor will be displayed in the Watch Panels.

context menu

A popup Context Menu is displayed by right clicking on the table: See the Watches Menu in the menu bar to create a new watch and for menu items that operate on all of the watches in the table.

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