Expressions View

Data can be inspected in the Expressions View. You can inspect data from a scrapbook page, a stack frame of a suspended thread, and other places. The Expressions View opens automatically when an item is added to the view. Entries in the Expressions View can be selected to have more detailed information be displayed in the Detail Pane. When debugging a Java program, data that contains variables can be expanded to show the variables and the fields the variables contain.

The Expressions View. The Detail Pane is the area at the bottom of the view displaying text..

Expressions View

There are many commands available in the Expressions View:

Variables View Commands
Add Watch Expression Add Watch Expression Allows you to add a watch expression. Context menu
All References All Instances Opens a popup dialog displaying a list of all instances of the selected Java type. Your Java virtual machine must support instance retrieval. Context menu
All References All References Opens a popup dialog displaying a list of all Java objects that have references to the selected variable. Your Java virtual machine must support reference retrieval. Context menu
Change Value Change Value... Allows you to change the value for the underlying selected variable. Context menu
Collapse All Collapse All Collapses all the currently expanded variables. View action
Copy Expressions

Copy Expressions

Copies the selected expressions and variables to the system clipboard.

Context menu
  Convert to Watch Expression Converts the selected inspect expression to a corresponding watch expression. Context menu
  Disable Disables a currently enabled expression. Context menu
  Edit Logical Structure Allow you to edit the logical structure of the selected variable Context menu
  Edit Watch Expression Allows you to edit the currently selected expression. Context menu
  Enable Enables a currently disabled expression. Context menu
  Find... Opens the search dialog to find elements in the variables view. Context menu
Inspect Inspect Creates a new inspect expression for the selected variable and adds it to the view. Context menu
  Instance Breakpoints... Allows you to filter existing breakpoints to the selected variable instance. Context menu
  Java Preferences... Opens several preference pages containing options that affect the view. View action
  New Detail Formatter... Allows you to create your own detail formatter for that type of variable. Context menu
  Open Actual Type Opens the actual type of the selected variable. Context menu
  Open Actual Type Hierarchy Opens the actual type hierarchy for the actual type of the selected variable. Context menu
  Open Declared Type Opens the declared type for the selected variable in a new editor. Context menu
  Open Declared Type Hierarchy Opens the type hierarchy for the declared type of the selected variable. Context menu
  Reevaluate Expression Reevaluates the currently selected expression. Context menu
remove Selected Expression(s) Remove Removes the currently selected expression(s) from the view. Context menu and view action
Remove All Remove All Removes all of the expressions from the view. Context menu and view action
  Select All Selects all of the variables in the view. Context menu
  Show Structure As... Allows you to select a different formatter for showing the selected logical structure type variable. Context menu
  Show Details As... Allows you to select a different detail pane for showing detailed information about selected variables. Context menu
Toggle Watchpoint Toggle Watchpoint Creates a new watchpoint on the currently selected field or removes the watchpoint if one already exists. Context menu

Related concepts

Java views
Java perspectives
Scrapbook

Related tasks

Evaluating expressions
Suspending threads

Related reference

Detail Pane
View Display Commands
View Layout Commands