Add item to watch window

Adding and removing Watch Window items

You explicitly add to and remove from the Watch Window the items whose values you want to view.

Displaying items

These are the simplest ways to add an item to the Watch Window:

• In the Source Code display, right click a program line that contains variables, and select Add Watch from the context menu. All variables on that line are added to the Watch Window.

The mappable Client command that performs the same action is AddWatchOnCurrentLine command.

• For the program line in the Source Code display that is highlighted to indicate it is in the current execution position, an alternative to right clicking the current line is to select Add Watch on Current Line from the Client's Data Display menu. All variables on the line are added to the Watch Window.

• Type the name (case is not important) of the item in the Entity name input box, then click the Watch button (or select the Data Display > Add Watch menu item):

The mappable Client command that performs the same action is AddWatch command.

• For these types of items, you must specify more than just the item name in the text box:
  • Model 204 fields
  • Global variables
  • Shared object variables
  • $lists

Viewing long items

To display lengthy values, you can do one of the following:

• Expand the Watch Window by dragging its left edge to the left:

• Hover your mouse over the item to display it entirely in a tooltip box:

This feature is enabled by selecting the Show long watch values in a Tooltip option in the Client's Preferences box (it is off by default).

• double click the value to display it in a Value window.
• Display the entire Watch Window in a window that is external to the Client.

Removing items

To remove a single item from the Watch Window, right click the item and select Remove from the context menu:

The mappable Client command that performs the same action is removeCurrentWatch.

To remove all items from the Watch Window, click the Clear Watch button, below the main window. This button empties the Watch Window and instructs the mainframe portion of the Debugger to stop collecting any watch data.

The mappable Client command that removes all Watch Window items is clearWatch.

Redisplaying items

Each item you add to the Watch Window is also added to a drop down list you can view in the Entity name input box by clicking the arrow at the right. To redisplay an item you previously removed from the Watch Window, simply select from the drop down list the item you want to watch again:

The items in the drop down list persist across Debugger Client sessions. The contents of the Watch Window itself are redisplayed in subsequent Client sessions by default. If you do not want the Watch Window contents to persist across Client sessions, clear the Restore watches on startup checkbox accessed from the Preferences option in the File menu.