I am fairly new to programming. I have been learning C# for the last couple of months, and recently started with WPF.

Generally while writing code, I can put a breakpoint, and then I am able to hover the mouse over every variable to see what its current value is. I have found this very useful for debugging code. I can also follow along in the “Locals” window.

I am struggling to find a similar method while writing WPF apps. If I put a breakpoint, I can hover over each variable and see the initial value of it, but the Main Window doesn’t launch. But when I run the app, I don’t have the option to follow the variables in the code like this.

Is there a way that I can launch the application, and follow the variable values in my code, while messing around with the controls in the application?

Just to include a simple example, I have made a ComboBox with 3 options, and a textblock that shows the selected option:

Image of MainWindow

, with this as the code behind:

public partial class MainWindow : Window, INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    public MainWindow()
    {
        DataContext = this;

        _allOptions = new ObservableCollection<string>();
        _allOptions.Add("Option 1");
        _allOptions.Add("Option 2");
        _allOptions.Add("Option 3");

        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private ObservableCollection<string> _allOptions;
    private string _selectedOption;

    public ObservableCollection<string> AllOptions
    {
        get { return _allOptions; }
        set
        {
            _allOptions = value;
        }
    }

    public string SelectedOption
    {
        get { return _selectedOption; }
        set
        {
            _selectedOption = value;
            OnPropertyChanged();
        }
    }

    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler? PropertyChanged;

    private void OnPropertyChanged([CallerMemberName] string propertyName = null)
    {
        PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
    }
}

I want to be able to follow the value of _selectedOption while the app is running.

How do I do that?

Thanks

I have tried looking around in Visual Studio for an option that shows me what I want, but haven’t found anything.