Creating Breakpoints

See Also

Creating breakpoints is done using the New Breakpoint dialog box. You can open the dialog box by choosing Breakpoint > New Breakpoint from the menu bar.

There are several types of breakpoints that can be created, which are described below.

Class
Stops when a class matching a given pattern loads or unloads. Since a class may be loaded by multiple class loaders, this may be hit more than once.
Exception
Stops when an exception matching a given pattern is thrown and caught or not caught. In Java 5.0, uncaught exceptions are difficult to detect and thus this type of breakpoint may not always stop when expected.
Line
Stops when a particular line of code in a source file is reached. This can only be created by clicking on a line in the source viewer.
Method
Stops when a particular method in a class matching a given pattern is reached. Note that setting method breakpoints in either the instance initializer or constructors is not entirely reliable. The Sun JPDA implementation does not properly distinquish between the two, so breakpoints in either may, or may not, actually stop as expected. Use line breakpoints instead.
Thread
Stops when a thread matching a given pattern is started or dies.
Trace
Never stops, only shows a brief message in the Output window when any method is entered and exited. Produces copious amounts of output.
Variable
Stops when a specific field in a class is accessed or modified.

Breakpoints support optional actions that are performed when the breakpoint stops. These are called monitors, and you can learn more about the available monitors in the Breakpoint Monitors topic.

See Also


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