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:

{
    int my_var1 = 0x0065;
    int my_var2 = 0x0066;
    int my_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.

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

Format specifiers

The following table describes the C# format specifiers for the Visual Studio debugger.

Specifier	Format	Original Watch Value	Displays
ac	Force evaluation of an expression, which can be useful when implicit evaluation of properties and implicit function calls is turned off.	Message "Implicit function evaluation is turned off by the user"	<value>
d	decimal integer	0x0065	101
dynamic	Displays the specified object using a Dynamic View	Displays all the members of the object, including the Dynamic View	Displays only the Dynamic View
h	hexadecimal integer	61541	0x0000F065
nq	string with no quotes	"My String"	My String
nse	Specifies behavior, not format. Evaluates the expression with "No side effects". If the expression can’t be interpreted and can only be resolved by an evaluation (such as a function call), you will see an error instead.	N/A	N/A
hidden	Displays all public and non-public members	Displays public members	Displays all members
raw	Displays item as it appears in the raw item node. Valid on proxy objects only.	Dictionary<T>	Raw view of Dictionary<T>
results	Used with a variable of a type that implements IEnumerable or IEnumerable<T>, usually the result of a query expression. Displays only the members that contain the query result.	Displays all the members	Displays the members the meet the conditions of the query

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