Create custom views of .NET 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 DebuggerDisplayAttribute, DebuggerTypeProxyAttribute, 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 .NET data type. For more information, see Custom visualizers.

Note

To create a visualizer for C/C++ objects, see UIVisualizer element within the Natvis documentation. Also, see the C/C++ custom visualizer sample or the SQLite native Debugger Visualizer sample.

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