Let's say I'm working with this C program.
- I have three strings that's stored in dynamically allocated memory.
- I'm storing the addresses to those strings in dynamically allocated pointer to pointers variable.
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void)
{
char *p0 = strdup("red..");
char *p1 = strdup("green");
char *p2 = strdup("blue.");
char *p3 = NULL;
char **pp = malloc(sizeof(char *) * 4); /* I want to watch this in VSCode debugger */
pp[0] = p0;
pp[1] = p1;
pp[2] = p2;
pp[3] = p3;
/* do something */
return (0);
}
What I want to achieve
In the watch view of VSCode debugger, how do I get it to display the char values (and addresses if possible) of the strings pointed by each pointers like the following?
<watch_expression_for_pp>: <address of pp>
|- pp[0]: [6] <address of pp[0]>
| |--- [0]: 'r'
| |--- [1]: 'e'
| |--- [2]: 'd'
| |--- [3]: '.'
| |--- [4]: '.'
| |--- [5]: '\0'
|
|- pp[1]: [6] <address of pp[1]>
| |--- [0]: 'g'
| |--- [1]: 'r'
| |--- [2]: 'e'
| |--- [3]: 'e'
| |--- [4]: 'n'
| |--- [5]: '\0'
|
|- pp[2]: [6] <address of pp[2]>
| |--- [0]: 'b'
| |--- [1]: 'l'
| |--- [2]: 'u'
| |--- [3]: 'e'
| |--- [4]: '.'
| |--- [5]: '\0'
|
|- pp[3]: [6] <0x0000000000000000>
|--- [0]: 'r'
|--- [1]: 'a'
|--- [2]: 'n'
|--- [3]: 'd'
|--- [4]: 'o'
|--- [5]: 'm'
What I already know
I know that if I add (char(*)[6])pp[0] as an watch expression, I will be able to view the 6 char values from pp[0][0] to pp[0][5], but that's not an ideal solution if I'm dealing with hundreds of pointers and need to go through the values quickly.
I'm looking for a way to add one watch expression, and be able to get a view like above, just like when I'm watching a linked list in the debugger.
Or, a completely different approach, like using an extension.

