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Visual Studio 2022 17.12- Show inline return values while debugging

With the 17.12 version of Visual Studio 2022 there comes a feature that I was waiting to be added for a long time(and with long I really mean long). Of course you are wondering what feature I'm talking about.

Let me first set the scene by showing you the class I want to debug:

I created a small Calculator example. Notice that I'm using 2 different syntaxes(the regular syntax and expression-bodied method). This is not an accidental inconsistency from my side as you’ll see later.

Now what if I wanted to debug the return values of these functions. Before the latest Visual Studio update I typically used a temporary variable to inspect the return values or took a look at the Autos window or the Watch window.

With this release, you finally see the return statements inline in the editor window.

Here is an example where I added the breakpoint at the end of the function:

Unfortunately this doesn’t work (yet?) when using the expression-bodied method syntax, this is because the breakpoint is set on the method body before it is executed:

Still this remains a top feature!

More information

Tips and tricks in the debugger - Visual Studio (Windows) | Microsoft Learn

Expression-bodied members - C# | Microsoft Learn

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