Question

I need to see the contents of a std::map variable while debugging. However, if i click on it in the Autos/Locals Tab, I see implementation specific stuff, instead of the keys and its contents which I want to look at. Is there a work-around i’m missing ?

Answer 1

I have no VS2003 nearby at the moment. But you could try to add in “autoexp.dat” the following section (I was sure that in VS2003 there are already included sections for all standard types):

;------------------------------------------------------------------------------
;  std::map
;------------------------------------------------------------------------------

std::map<*>{
    children
    (
        #tree
        (
            head : $c._Myhead->_Parent, 
            skip : $c._Myhead, 
            size : $c._Mysize, 
            left : _Left, 
            right : _Right
        ) : $e._Myval
    )

    preview
    (
        #(
            "[", 
            $e._Mysize, 
            "](", 

            #tree
            (
                head : $c._Myhead->_Parent, 
                skip : $c._Myhead, 
                size : $c._Mysize, 
                left : _Left, 
                right : _Right
            ) : $e._Myval,

            ")"
        )
    )            
}

The structure of this file and the syntax of autoexp rules may change from one release of Visual Studio to the next. Read here more about custom visualizers for Visual Studio.