Java Hair

Conditional breakpoints are a great way to reduce debugging time and one of those features you might not even have known existed. This article will cover how to use them in 3 different ide’s including NetBeans, Eclipse and JDeveloper.

Have you ever tried to debug a problem that only occurs somewhere in a list of 100 objects? It can be a bit of a hassle.

You could put in a breakpoint and hit continue each time that breakpoint is hit until you find the problem object. This is acceptable the first time, but often the first time isn’t going to cut it.

You could put an if statement in your code to check for the condition that is causing the problem, but then you need to remember to remove that if statement after you fix the problem. Often my if statements in the past would have looked like this:

i f (problem.exists()) {

System.out.println(”This is the problem.”);

}

And I’d set a breakpoint on the System.out.println line.

A much better approach is to make use of conditional breakpoints available in most modern IDE’s.

In NetBeans, create a breakpoint, the right click on the little pink square that signifies the break. Click on “Customize”. When the customize dialog comes up, check “Condition” and fill in the condition. Above is an example of this dialog in NetBeans.

To accomplish the same thing in Eclipse, create your breakpoint, then right-click on the little blue dot signifying the breakpoint and choose “Breakpoint Properties”. In the Properties window, check “Enable Condition” and then fill in your condition or conditions in the box provided. An example is shown above.

Finally, to accomplish the same in JDeveloper (TP4, anyway), set your breakpoint, right click on the little red circle that appears. Then click on “Edit Breakpoint” and in the dialog that pops up, move to the “Conditions” tab. You can set your conditions there as shown in the picture above.

So now that you know, from now on, no more useless breakpoints!

And if you’ve still been debugging using System.out’s, I’m sorry I wasted your time. I’m sure Vi is just sitting there flashing it’s cursor at you waiting for you to save those changes.

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