Broken std::map visualiser in VS2005

Question

I'm using the Intel compiler and visual studio and I can't seem to debug values that are in maps. I get a quick preview which shows the size of the map but the elements only show up as "(error)", I'll illustrate with a quick example, i've generated a map with a single entry myMapVariable[6]=1;

if I mouse over I get this "myMapVariable 1" and in the watch window I get the same thing and expanding on the plus gives a single child entry which says name = "(error)" and value = 0 (which is wrong).

I've added a line to my autoexp.dat debugging file which shows the raw member variables under the child called [raw members]. I've pretty much reached the limits of my ability to dig into this further without help so I would ask if anyone here can provide some insights.

Answer 1

You're most likely using aggressive optimization settings. At least your screenshot is typical of that sort of thing. In that case, the debugger is actively stuffing hot values into registers, and it may be that, at the point you're stopped, the values that are needed to properly visualize the entire map are already discarded and overwritten by something else that is enough (like, say, a pointer to a current node). I would imagine that Intel C++, which is well-known for its high-quality optimization, does this sort of thing even more often than VC++ (but I've seen such with the latter often enough as well).

Consider recompiling the project in Debug configuration (which would disable the optimizer), and see if that helps.

Answer 2

My only suggestion is to make sure the map is initialized and in scope. Otherwise, I'm not sure, I've never seen this but I use VS2008 now.

Answer 3

I have never been able to fix this problem using Intel, but I have now moved to the latest visual studio compiler VS2010 and this is no longer a problem. I'm marking this as the answer because I don't want to leave unanswered questions lying around.