title

description

ms.date

ms.topic

dev_langs

helpviewer_keywords

author

ms.author

manager

ms.subservice

Format specifiers in the debugger (C#)

Use a format specifier to change the format in which a value is displayed in the Watch window. This article provides usage details.

11/21/2018

conceptual

CSharp

FSharp

C++

expressions [C#], formatting values

variables [debugger], watch variable symbols

symbols, watch variable formatting

QuickWatch dialog box, using format specifiers

specifiers, watch variable format

QuickWatch dialog box, format specifiers in C#

specifiers

watch variable symbols

Watch window, format specifiers in C#

format specifiers, debugger

debugger, format specifiers recognized by

mikejo5000

mikejo

mijacobs

debug-diagnostics

Format specifiers in C# in the Visual Studio debugger

You can change the format in which a value is displayed in the Watch window by using format specifiers. You can also use format specifiers in the Immediate window, the Command window, in tracepoints, and in source windows. If you pause on an expression in those windows, the result will appear in a DataTip in the specified format display.

To use a format specifier, enter the variable expression followed by a comma and the appropriate specifier.

Set format specifiers

We'll use the following example code:

{intmy_var1=0x0065;intmy_var2=0x0066;intmy_var3=0x0067;}

Add the my_var1 variable to the Watch window while debugging, Debug > Windows > Watch > Watch 1. Next, right-click the variable and select Hexadecimal Display. Now the Watch window shows the value 0x0065. To see this value as a decimal integer rather than a hexadecimal integer, add the decimal format specifier , d in the Name column after the variable name. The Value column now shows 101.

::: moniker range=">= vs-2019"

You can view and select from a list of available format specifiers by appending a comma (,) to the value in the Watch window.

::: moniker-end