在Python中使用控制台中的断点进行调试

Question

I'm trying to migrate from Matlab to python. One of the things that is nice about Matlab is that when debugging I can put a breakpoint in some code and do something to call that code form the command line. Using PyCharm + IPython I haven't found a way to do this in Python. It seems I have to run an entire script in debug mode to do any debugging rather than being able to do so from a simple command. I suppose I could write a one line script with the command I'm interested in, but it seems like there should be a better way. What is the Python way of doing this?

Answer 1

I would like to recommend using Python Tools for Visual Studio . It is free and open source, and although Visual Studio itself is obviously not open source, there is ( "PTVS Integrated" ) which comes with a free and very functional version of Visual Studio with commercial use permitted. Additionally, students and staff of most academic institutions will have free access to Visual Studio Ultimate via Dreamspark .

If your program is stopped at a breakpoint, you can open "Python Debug Interactive" (from tools->python tools), which will open an interactive python shell with access to all of the variables available in your program namespace at the breakpoint, in the same way that you can do in Matlab.

Hovering over the variables with your mouse in the source code also shows the value, bringing up the "locals" window more or less simulates the workspace viewer in Matlab, and you can also "watch" specific variables. I don't know if it's safe to edit the variables through this interface though, use with caution!

Unfortunately PTVS doesn't have nested breakpoints, which is a quite useful feature in the Matlab debugger. So if you are stopped at a breakpoint and you call a method from the debug interactive window, any breakpoints in the method will not work. See this related question .

The arrow key based command history in the debug shell is quite primitive compared to Matlab or ipython, and the Intellisense is not as good as it is for native .net languages, but I've been using it solidly for the last half-year or so now, and don't really feel like I'm missing much from Matlab, other than the excellent documentation.

One other thing to be aware of is that the code execution performance when in debug mode is MUCH slower, so I recommend either running your code without debug mode (using "Ctrl+F5" instead of "F5") for best performance, or the new mixed mode debugger if you need both breakpoints and good performance.

Answer 2

Try using python debugger

b(reak) [[filename:]lineno | function[, condition]]

or

pdb.set_trace();

More detailed tutorial can be found here .

Answer 3

Have you tried Spyder??? This is an open source IDE that looks very similar to Matlab. It also provides the debugger that you want. https://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/

PS: I'm also migrating to python, but I'm avoiding things like that because I want to start with an empty mind. :) But I read lots of those from Matlab to Numpy texts...

Answer 4

I have been moved from matlab and R to python. I have tried different editors so I can give you some advices.

1- Spyder is the closer to matlab but my impression is that it is not very good. It often crash when I start to run long simulation with a lot of data. If you are new to python I suggest you to use this one for a while and then move to something else.

2- emacs python mode. Works very well . In my opinion it is difficult to configure and probably not the best choice if you are not familiar with python.

3- pycharm. I have just started to use pycharm and it seems to be very good (this reminds my Rstudio). I do not think that this supports an interactive console like the one inside spyder or emacs. You can still obtain something similar in the debug mode

4- A lot of people love ipython notebook but I think that this is not a good choice for long code. It is good if you want something easy to visualize.

Answer 5

Since you mentioned you are using ipython , you can also check ipdb .

You have to install it first via pip or easy_install . Etc:

pip install ipdb

The usage is the same as pdb. The ipython console will popout where you placed ipdb.set_trace() from where you can check/change local an global variables, check their documentation and types, step into the code of incoming functions (with 's' you'll go to the definition of code123() ), etc.

import ipdb;

code000()
ipdb.set_trace();
code123()

Also a tip on how to get the functionalities of ? from ipython (regarding getting the documentation of functions and modules while in the debugger). This answer .

Answer 6

In console create function where you use pdb.set_trace() , then function you want debug.

>>> import pdb

>>> def f():
...     pdb.set_trace()
...     my_function()
... 

Then call created function:

>>> f()
> <stdin>(3)f()
(Pdb) s
--Call--
> <stdin>(1)my_function()
(Pdb) 

Happy debugging :)