watch expression in debug mode

[bizso]

Hi,
I'm new to eclipse and trying to get hang of debugging. When I execute my code in debug mode this is what I see at local variables:

num = 45632

when I right click on "num" in the variables view and select inspect, I see "num" and "45632" in the expressions view. However, when I right click there and select Convert to Watch Expression I get this message:

"Evaluations must contain either an expression or a block of well-formed statements"

Similarly, when I highlight "num" in the editor and right click inpsect, I get the same error message. I tried to use the display view, typed in num without a semicolon, but that didn't work either. Any help?

[Eranga]

At what time you check the value, before debugger comes to that line, or after the execution. May be a garbage collection it is. What exactly num holds, type? Can you show a code segment here related to this?

[bizso]

At what time you check the value, before debugger comes to that line, or after the execution. May be a garbage collection it is. What exactly num holds, type? Can you show a code segment here related to this?

This is what's happening:

import org.junit.Test;

public class AClassTest extends TestCase{
  @Test
  public void testTest(){
    AClass aClass = new AClass();
    int num = aClass.getTest();
    
  }
}
public class AClass {
  public int getTest() {
     return 45632;
  }
}

After

int num = aClass.getTest();

has been executed. I am able to see num in the variables field, and also able to see the value when I hover above it in debug mode. But when I highlight it and click inspect, or add to watch expression, I get that strange error message.

However, if I write

public class AClassTest extends TestCase{
  @Test
  public void testTest(){
    AClass aClass = new AClass();
    int num = 45632;
    
  }
}

Then everything is fine... ??

[Eranga]

Hmmm, interesting. I'm not an Eclipse user. However I test your code in NetBeans and I didn't get any error message as you said. There is nothing wrong in your code, seems to me that's the ways debugger deals with.

We'll see is anyone comes with the same issue. If someone, Eclipse user, able to test this code and let us know really helpful.

[Eranga]

Hmmm, interesting. I'm not an Eclipse user. However I test your code in NetBeans and I didn't get any error message as you said. There is nothing wrong in your code, seems to me that's the ways debugger deals with.

We'll see is anyone comes with the same issue. If someone, Eclipse user, able to test this code and let us know really helpful.

[bizso]

update...

I have tried out the same JUnit test case debugging in NetBeans 6.7 and everything works fine there (it correctly evaluates the watch expressions). So it would appear that this is an Eclipse specific problem...

[Eranga]

Yes, seems like that. Not NetBeans it works fine. That's why I say if another Eclipse user able to test the same code, and let us know, to narrow down the exact scenario.