You can use format specifiers to change the display of values when you view variables or expressions in the Watch window or QuickWatch dialog box.
To use a format specifier, type the expression, followed by a comma, followed by the appropriate specifier.
Example
Suppose nVar
is an integer variable, and the Watch window shows that it contains the value 0x0065
. Suppose you want to see value expressed as a character instead of an integer. In the Name column, after the variable name, you would add the character format specifier, c
:
nVar,c
Instead of the integer value 0x0065
, the Value column now displays the character value, 'e'
.
If you want to apply a format specifier to elements of an array or members of an object, you must apply it directly to each element or member. You cannot apply it to the array or object as a whole. For example, suppose you had an array nArray
and wanted to see the first four elements in character format. You would enter these expressions in the Watch window:
nArray[0],c nArray[1],c nArray[2],c nArray[3],c
The following tables show the format specifiers recognized by the debugger.
Specifier | Format | Value | Displays |
---|---|---|---|
d,i | signed decimal integer | 0xF000F065 | -268373915 |
u | unsigned decimal integer | 0x0065 | 101 |
o | unsigned octal integer | 0xF065 | 0170145 |
x,X | Hexadecimal integer | 61541 (decimal) | 0x0000F065 |
l,h | long or short prefix for: d, i, u, o, x, X | 00406042,hx | 0x0c22 |
f | signed floating point | 3./2. | 1.500000 |
e | signed scientific notation | 3./2. | 1.500000e+000 |
g | signed floating point or signed scientific notation, whichever is shorter | 3./2. | 1.5 |
c | Single character | 0x0065 | 'e' |
s | String | 0x0012fde8 | "Hello world" |
su | Unicode string | "Hello world" | |
st | Unicode string or ANSI string, depending on Unicode Strings setting in autoexp.dat. | ||
hr | HRESULT or Win32 error code. (The debugger now decodes HRESULTs automatically, so this specifier is not required in those cases. It is not possible to decode HRESULTs if you compile with /noHRESULT.) | 0x00000000L | S_OK |
wc | Window class flag. | 0x00000040 | WC_DEFAULTCHAR |
wm | Windows message numbers | 0x0010 | WM_CLOSE |
The following table contains formatting symbols used for memory locations.
Symbol | Format | Displays |
---|---|---|
ma | 64 ASCII characters | 0x0012ffac .4...0...".0W&.......1W&.0.:W..1...."..1.JO&.1.2.."..1...0y....1 |
m | 16 bytes in hexadecimal, followed by 16 ASCII characters | 0x0012ffac B3 34 CB 00 84 30 94 80 FF 22 8A 30 57 26 00 00 .4...0...".0W&.. |
mb | 16 bytes in hexadecimal, followed by 16 ASCII characters | 0x0012ffac B3 34 CB 00 84 30 94 80 FF 22 8A 30 57 26 00 00 .4...0...".0W&.. |
mw | 8 words | 0x0012ffac 34B3 00CB 3084 8094 22FF 308A 2657 0000 |
md | 4 doublewords | 0x0012ffac 00CB34B3 80943084 308A22FF 00002657 |
mq | 4 quadwords | 0x0012ffac 7ffdf00000000000 5f441a790012fdd4 |
mu | 2-byte characters (Unicode) | 0x0012fc60 8478 77f4 ffff ffff 0000 0000 0000 0000 |
You can use a memory location specifier with any value or expression that evaluates to a location.
To display a Unicode string, use the su
format specifier. To display data bytes for Unicode characters, use the mu
format specifier.
There is one special format specifier you can use to display a character array as a string. This specifier is ampersand (&). It is special because, unlike other specifiers, you use it as a prefix rather than a suffix and there is no comma between the specifier and the variable name:
&CharArray