Create custom views of managed objects (C#, Visual Basic, F#, C++/CLI)

Applies to: Visual Studio Visual Studio for Mac Visual Studio Code

You can customize the way Visual Studio displays data types in debugger variable windows.

Attributes

In C#, Visual Basic, F#, and C++ (C++/CLI code only), you can add expansions for custom data using DebuggerTypeProxyAttribute, DebuggerDisplayAttribute, and DebuggerBrowsableAttribute.

In .NET Framework 2.0 code, Visual Basic does not support the DebuggerBrowsable attribute. This limitation is removed in more recent versions of .NET.

Visualizers

You can write a visualizer to display any managed data type. For more information, see How to: Write a Visualizer.

Note

For C++ code, you can add custom data type expansions using the Natvis framework, as described in Create custom views of C++ objects in the debugger.

See also

• Tell the debugger what to show using the DebuggerDisplay Attribute
• Tell the debugger what type to show using DebuggerTypeProxy Attribute
• Watch and QuickWatch Windows
• Enhancing Debugging with the Debugger Display Attributes