FIX: Debugger Hangs When Very Long STL Symbol in Watch Window

ID: Q171849

The information in this article applies to:

The Integrated Debugger, included with:
- Microsoft Visual Studio 97

SYMPTOMS

The debugger hangs when an STL object with very long symbol name is viewed in the Watch Window and expanded. You have to close Developer Studio Task Manager and restart. The sample program in the MORE INFORMATION section demonstrates this behavior.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because the debugger currently has a limit of 255 characters for symbols.

RESOLUTION

Reduce the size of the mangled symbol names. You can do this by shortening the names of classes and class members. You can also shorten class names of classes by using #define.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This bug has been fixed in Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2.

For more information on the Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q170365 INFO: Visual Studio 97 Service Packs - What, Where, and Why

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Build the following sample code as a Console application:


   #include <windows.h>
   #include <map>
   #pragma warning (disable : 4786 )
   using namespace std;
   template<typename Type>
   class SomeReallyLongSymbolName
   {
       public:
         SomeReallyLongSymbolName(Type var){m_Type = var;}
         SomeReallyLongSymbolName(){}
         void func(Type var){m_Type = var;}
         Type m_Type;
   };
   SomeReallyLongSymbolName<int> intObject(0);
   typedef map< DWORD, SomeReallyLongSymbolName< DWORD> >
   STLTypeWithLongName ;
   STLTypeWithLongName  STLObjectWithLongName;
   int main()
   {
      intObject.func(1);
      return 0;
   }

After the build is complete, start the debugger by pressing the F10 key. In the Watch Window, enter the two variable names, intObject and STLObjectWithLongName. You will be able to expand the intObject variable. However, when you try to expand the STLObjectWithLongName variable, the Debugger will hang.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbVS97sp2fix
Version : 97
Platform : NT WINDOWS
Issue type : kbbug