debug visualizer of C++ custom types for Visual Studio

Question

I am working with a library with some awkward types. When debugging in Visual Studio, I would like to display them in a readable form. I found some really useful articles about how to edit autoexp.dat file.

http://www.idigitalhouse.com/Blog/?p=83

or

http://mariusbancila.ro/blog/2007/04/06/tweaking-autoexpdat-for-custom-types-in-vs2005/

Suppose I have a String class:

class String {
//...
private:
    char *_cbuf;
}

then I can add the visualizer easily because _cbuf is a member variable. I just write

String{
preview (
[$c._cbuf]
)
}

at the beginning of [Visualizer] section in autoexp.dat file and it works.

But suppose that I want to display a more complex type which does not have any useful member variables but it has very useful methods. Eg:

class Date {
    //...
    String asString() const;
private:
    long _someReallyStrangeAndUnusefulDateRepresentation;
}

And I want to display the string rather than the unuseful long. How to do that? Writing

Date{
preview (
[$c.asString()]
)
}

in autoexp.dat does not work.

Answer 1

OK, after some research it seems it is generally possible but not directly by just editing of autoexp.dat.

First solution is to use EEAddIn.dll as described here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8fwk67y3%28v=VS.90%29.aspx

another solution might be using inlined function as in Lucien Murray-Pitts' comment down on this page: http://www.virtualdub.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=120 which is inspired by boost debug visualizers.

However I have not yet tried any of these.