Question

I am debugging a WCF project with two-way communication. I have a callback with data that I store in an array the client, a WinForm, and use that for painting a control. As you can guess, the data disappears from writing in the array (really a list) to when I read the data.

For debugging I would like to see if I am writing and reading the same object so that the callback function isn’t making some kind of copy and throw it away. For example I want to see the address of the this – pointer. How do I do that in VS2010 Exp?

Edit
Some code:

Field declaration:

    // the cards that the player have
    private List<Card> cards = new List<Card>();

callback handler:

    private void btnDraw_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Tuple<Card, string> update = PressedDraw(this);
        cards.Add(update.Item1);
        PaintCards();
    }

paint event:

   private void cardPanel_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
    {
        int counter = 0;
        Point fromCorner = new Point(20,12);
        int distance = 50;
        foreach (Card card in cards)
        {
            Point pos = fromCorner;
            pos.Offset(counter++ * distance, 0);
            Bitmap cardBitmap = 
                cardFaces[Convert.ToInt32(card.suit), 
                   Convert.ToInt32(card.rank)];

            Rectangle square = new Rectangle(pos, cardBitmap.Size);
            e.Graphics.DrawImage(cardBitmap, square);
        }

When I debug I enter first in the callback handler and adds a Card in cards
PaintCards() calls Invalidate and the paint event is run. When in cardPanel_Paint, cards.Count is zero again.

Best regards.
Görgen

Answer 1

In the Watch/Locals/Autos windows, you can right-click on an object and select “Make Object ID” to give the object an identification number. This number is effectively the same as a native object’s address; it serves to identify.

The identity of an object is tracked across garbage collections and compactions, so across the lifetime of your application, you can tell if a certain object is the one you originally tagged. This feature might help in your situation.

This blog post has a quick run-through of the feature.