Question

I have a line of code like this

return foo(barIn);

If I place a breakpoint on the line can I inspect the returned value of foo(barIn) without stepping into foo? I can rewrite the code to

var result = foo(barIn);
return result;

but I’d like the convenience of not rewriting and not stepping away from the current code.

========== EDIT ==========

The four initial answers are interesting (thanks) but they do not actually answer my question. Let me try to be clearer.

In this method

public string functionA()
{
    return functionB();
}

is there a way in Visual Studio 2012 to place a break point on the line “return functionB();” and inspect the return value of functionB without stepping into functionB, re-running functionB, or rewriting functionA?

Answer 1

No, you cannot meet this exact behaviour. See Can I find out the return value before returning while debugging in Visual Studio. The closest you can get is:

If foo is idempotent (i.e. it does not have any side-effects), then you can add a watch to foo(barIn).

If it does have side-effects, then put your breakpoint on the return, and then step-out (Shift+F11 by default) of the function and inspect the variable that the result of the function is assigned to.