Advanced copy variable values in debugger

[boardofchris]

• VSCode Version: 1.1.2.2
• OS Version: macos

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Run the debugger, set a break point (I am using Node, but assume it applies to all languages)
2. Examine a variable's value in the variable debugger window or by hoovering over the variable name.
3. Try to copy a variable's value so you can paste to notepad for future reference.
4. 8(

No matter what I try, I cannot get the variable's value into clip board. I even tried a screen grab, but the hoover window disappeared. I remember this feature from visual studio years ago. It is quite useful.

[isidorn]

In the following gif you can see me doing this action in 3 different ways

I think one of these should work for you. Let me know if none work and I can reopen the issue.
Note that the last way is simple double click on variable to open the input box

[boardofchris]

Thanks for the short video. I didn't realize there was a copy value command. That is a handy option.

I should clarify that I wish for an advanced variable copy feature. For example,inspecting complex data like arrays or multi-field objects. Copying the variable value within the debugger is limited to about 43 characters and appears like this Array[46] [Array[2], Array[2], Array[2] …]. I can go to an element within the object/array and if it is small enough copy that.

The feature as it is now works for single values or with very simple multiple field objects. However, although I can see full array/object in the debugger, I cannot copy them.

[isidorn]

Got it, reopening and marking as a feature request

[anubhav756]

Add JSON.stringify(...) to watch, then copy

[omartin2010]

how about an object, who's got many sub objects? The "Copy Value" option isn't there. Is there any way this can be done?

[anubhav756]

@omartin2010 #27950 (comment)

[omartin2010]

I should have mentioned in the case of Python, which is what I'm using, I'm not seeing that json stringify function part of the json module, and also if I try to do a json.dump(myobj), my object isn't actually a json object so it's not serializable. Any easy alternative, short of using pickle.dumps(myobj)?

[LC43]

any suggestion for those that work with other languages?

[danielbeeke]

I would like this functionality for PHP

[ThomasGHenry]

@anubhav756 Slick!

[breathe]

Is there a way to get the full serialized representation of the value via 'Copy Value' action -- instead of the super truncated one ...?

[perarg]

JSON.stringify

It doesn't work. Says error evaluating code. It is tested with drupal variables.

[Sigtechnica]

pretty pretty please, request for php as well, driving me nuts 🦀

update.
var_export($wrapper, true) , seems to something similar, but it cuts off , like a string limit or something

[digiwang]

@omartin2010

I am not sure what kind of object you are working with, but I was trying to copy all of the values from a specific column in a Pandas DataFrame when I stumbled upon this issue. I am running vscode 1.14.1 in a Conda Python environment.

It turned out that the output limitation wasn't due to the Debug Console's abilities, but actually stemmed from a setting in pandas. Specifically, I issued pandas.set_option('display.max_rows', None) and then tried to print my DataFrame again and wuala. I could copy all 20055 output values directly from the console.

[awoz]

Feature request. Please add "Copy expanded value" to Debug Variables context menu.

[weinand]

@isidorn are we now using "evaluate" for simple and structured values?

[isidorn]

@weinand yes. Code pointer

vscode/src/vs/workbench/contrib/debug/browser/debugActions.ts

Line 403 in 9307e05

const evaluation = await session.evaluate(toEvaluate, stackFrame.frameId, context);

[weinand]

So now every debug extension can now implement a "formatted deep copy" for structured objects by returning the string result of a JSON.stringify(...) (or equivalent) from evaluate if the context argument has the value clipboard, correct?

[isidorn]

You are correct I believe.
Also the extension would have to set the following capability supportsClipboardContext.

[weinand]

@isidorn then we should ask debug extension authors to adopt that approach, right?
We could start with js-debug and python...

@connor4312 @roblourens your opinion?

[isidorn]

@weinand yes. @connor4312 could try it out and let us know how it feels in practice :)

[roblourens]

Using "evaluate" for this feels weird, it's more of a formatting operation. Really dumb case, if this is supported in watches, and I have a watch for Math.random(), and I copy it, I expect to get that exact value and not a value from evaluating the expression a second time right?

[weinand]

@roblourens valid point, but the implementation of evaluate is free to just use formatting in the "context=clipboard" case.

[connor4312]

I've implemented this in js-debug, it works well. Definitely a big QoL improvement, getting truncated values in copied expressions was quite annoying 🙂

[isidorn]

@connor4312 very very cool!
@weinand should I ping other debug authors so we get more extensions implementing this?

[weinand]

@isidorn yes, please ping the "usual suspects".

[isidorn]

Dear Debug extension authors,

Now it is possible to implement advanced copy variable values for your debugger:

1. Your extension needs to send the capability supportsClipboardContext
2. In the evaluate call you should check if the context is 'clipboard', if yes that means the user is triggering the Copy Value command and you can return the result of the "advanced copy" - a fully serialized value of the evaluation

Example how @connor4312 has done it for js-debug microsoft/vscode-js-debug@a136ba5
And in the gif above you can see how it works in practice.

Try it out and let us know how it goes. Thanks!

@APerricone, @akaroml, @andysterland, @ayuckhulk, @DanTup, @daviwil, @devoncarew, @dibyendumajumdar, @DonJayamanne, @felixfbecker, @glennsarti, @gregg-miskelly, @hbenl, @iradul, @ivanbuhov, @joelday, @jpogran, @joshtynjala, @Kode, @miniwolf, @MSLaguana, @luabud, @lukaszunity, @ntotten, @phoityne, @pieandcakes, @ptrthomas, @raix, @richterger, @rkeithhill, @rebornix, @roblourens, @svaarala, @testforstephen, @vadimcn, @vshaxe, @WebFreak001, @weinand, @yurydelendik

[DanTup]

@isidorn seems to work for me - I was able to resolve Dart-Code/Dart-Code#1990 with it. Thanks!

[miniwolf]

This feature is great. Thank you soo much :)

[isidorn]

Since this can now be done by the debug extensions closing this.