Stepping and LINQ

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When you are debugging LINQ code, stepping has some behavioral differences you should be aware of.

LINQ to SQL

In LINQ to SQL queries, the predicate code is beyond the control of the debugger. Therefore, you cannot step into the predicate code. Any query that compiles to an expression tree produces code that is beyond the control of the debugger.

Stepping in Visual Basic

When you are stepping through a Visual Basic program and the debugger encounters a query declaration, it does not step into the declaration but highlights the entire declaration as a single statement. This behavior occurs because the query is not evaluated until it is called. For more information, see Introduction to LINQ in Visual Basic.

If you step through the following example code, the debugger highlights the query declaration, or query creation, as a single statement.

Function MyFunction(ByVal x As Char)
    Return True
End Function

Sub Main()
    'Query creation
    Dim x = From it In "faoaoeua" _
            Where MyFunction(it) _
            Select New With {.a = it}

    ' Query execution
    For Each cur In x
        Console.WriteLine(cur.ToString())
    Next
End Sub

When you step again, the debugger highlights For Each cur In x. On the next step, it steps into the function MyFunction. After stepping through MyFunction, it jumps back to Console.WriteLine(cur.ToSting()). At no point does it step through the predicate code in the query declaration, although the debugger does evaluate that code.

Replacing a Predicate with a Function to Enable Stepping (Visual Basic)

If you have to step through predicate code for debugging purposes, you can replace the predicate with a call to a function that contains the original predicate code. For example, suppose you have this code:

Dim items() as integer ={1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}

' Get the even numbers
Dim query = From nextInt in items Where nextInt Mod 2 = 0 Select nextInt

For each item in query
      Console.WriteLine(item)
Next

You can move the predicate code to a new function, called IsEven:

Dim items () as integer ={1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}

' Get the even numbers
Dim query = From nextInt in items Where IsEven(nextInt) Select nextInt

For each item in query
      Console.WriteLine(item)
Next
... 
Function IsEven(item As =Integer) as Boolean
      Return item Mod 2 = 0
End Function

The revised query calls the function IsEven on each pass through the items. You can use the debugger windows to see whether each item meets the specified condition, and you can step through the code in IsEven. The predicate in this example is fairly simple. However, if you have a more difficult predicate you have to debug, this technique can be very useful.

See Also

Concepts

Edit and Continue With LINQ

Introduction to LINQ Queries (C#)

Introduction to LINQ in Visual Basic

Other Resources

Debugging LINQ