Another debugger attribute is the DebuggerBrowsableAttribute type, which determines how a member is displayed in a debug window. This attribute is valid for properties, indexers, and fields.

DebuggerBrowsableAttribute has a one-argument constructor only. The parameter is the DebuggableBrowsableState enumeration. Table 15-21 lists the elements of the enumeration.

Figure 15-43 shows the values for the ZClass and YClass types without the DebuggerBrowsableAttribute type.

Figure 15-43. A view of ZClass and YClass types without DebuggerBrowsableAttribute applied

The following code shows the ZClass and YClass types decorated with DebuggerBrowsableAttribute, shown in bold. In ZClass, the array members related to the propInts property is displayed. In YClass, fieldb is hidden:

[DebuggerDisplay("NewName")]
class ZClass
{
    public static int test = 1;
    public virtual void MethodA()
    {
        int vara = 5, varb = 10;
        Console.WriteLine("{0} {1}", vara, varb);
    }

    public void MethodB()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("ZClass.MethodB");
        Console.WriteLine("ZClass.fielda {0}",
            fielda);
    }

    private int[] Ints = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
    [DebuggerBrowsable(DebuggerBrowsableState.RootHidden)]
    public int[] propInts
    {
        get
        {
            return Ints;
        }
    }

    private int fielda = 5;
}

[DebuggerDisplay("DerivedName")]
class YClass : ZClass
{
    public override void MethodA()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("YClass.MethodA");
        Console.WriteLine("Fieldb: {0}", fieldb);
    }

    [DebuggerBrowsable(DebuggerBrowsableState.Never)]
    private int fieldb = 10;
}

Figure 15-44 shows the results of using the DebuggerBrowsableAttribute type on ZClass and YClass. Elements of the propInts array are displayed directly and fieldb is no longer displayed.

Figure 15-44. A view of ZClass and YClass types with DebuggerBrowsableAttribute applied