How Can I Find Out Who Is Passing a Wrong Parameter Value?

Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

Problem Description

The wrong parameter value is being passed to one of my functions. This function is called from all over the place. How can I find out what is passing it the wrong value?

Solution

To resolve this problem

  1. Set a location breakpoint at the beginning of the function.

  2. Right-click the breakpoint and select Condition.

  3. In the Breakpoint Condition dialog box, click on the Condition check box. See Advanced Breakpoints.

  4. Enter an expression, such as Var==3, into the text box, where Var is the name of the parameter that contains the bad value, and 3 is the bad value passed to it.

  5. Select the is True radio button, and click the OK button.

  6. Now run the program again. The breakpoint causes the program to halt at the beginning of the function when the Var parameter has the value 3.

  7. Use the Call Stack window to find the calling function and navigate to its source code. For more information, see How to: Use the Call Stack Window.

See also