[cfe-commits] [PATCH] Add support to VS debugger for previewing SmallString<>

[Will Wilson]

>>>> For Visual Studio users: Here's little patch to the
>>>> clangVisualizers.txt that allows the contents of a SmallString to be
>>>> seen in string form, rather than (somewhat less usefully) as a
>>>> SmallVector.
>>>
>>> I assume this wouldn't work for SmallStrings that include embedded
>>> '\0' characters? Though I suppose we don't do any better for StringRef
>>> either, so perhaps that's not a priority.
>>
>> Unfortunately not, I can't find any support for anything other than
>> basic zero-terminated strings in the syntax.
>
> I don't know anything about VS, really, but SmallStrings are not usually null-terminated. Have you tested this when there is definitely something after the string?

Yes, in such cases you see whatever follows the string data. Therefore
(as with StringRef) you need to be careful interpreting the string
data in the debugger preview. That said, I'd far rather have the
utility of seeing it displayed as a string with garbage at the end
than have to interpret it as an array of characters. And either way,
you may still view it as an array by expanding the string node to show
the underlying view of the SmallVector<> which also lets you see the
true extent of it.

So it's definitely imperfect, but better than nothing :)

- Will.