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Asked: 2026-06-01T12:08:20+00:00

C# is the language I am most comfortable with but do Java when at

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C# is the language I am most comfortable with but do Java when at work. I guess you can say I am very comfortable with using the Visual Studio IDE. One of the things I enjoyed about its debugger is that I can put watch variables (“Expressions” in Eclipse) for any expression. So I could take a peek at values of specific fields public or non-public, call methods, etc. with no problem as I am debugging.

It doesn’t seem like I can do the same in Eclipse. I have to resort to calling the associated getter method for the field (assuming it has one). If it doesn’t have one, I either have to temporarily add one so I can view it and remember to remove it when I’m done or I’m just SOL.

How can I put a watch expression for an object on one of its private fields? Or am I just doing it wrong and I have to craft special expressions to view them?
(Or is there a better way for me to get the information that I want?)

e.g.,

I have an HttpServletRequest and want to keep an eye on the requestURI. If I just watch the request variable, it lists a lot of its fields and it’s just too much information. I’m only interested in one thing in the object so to minimize this, I want to add a watch expression for that one thing.

The field name is apparently requestURI so I added the expression: request.requestURI. Eclipse throws an error saying it’s not a field (it is, it’s just not public). Instead of going directly to the field, I had to go to the getter: request.getRequestURI() and that works fine. But I can’t always count on the getter being available.

the variables view
The Variables view

the expressions view
The Expressions view

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The Eclipse evaluates expression considering the private/protected fields of Declared Type, not of Actual Type.

    Example:

    Number n1 = new Integer(1000);
Integer n2 = new Integer(1000);

    Expressions:

    n1.value  can't be evaluate
n2.value  returns 1000, perfectly

    An alternative is use DetailFormatter (right-click in variable > New Detail Formatter).

    The Eclipse will use this expression instead of toString() method when the textual representation of a object of type is displayed (in Variables View, for example).

    Your DetailFormatter (for ApplicationHttpRequest) can be:

    requestURI

    or

    "URI: " + requestURI + "\n" +
"Path: " + servletPath
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