Ever written a toString() method to ease debugging? I bet you have, as that is the primary reason for writing a toString() method in the first place. Ever worked with an external API that didn't have well thought-out toString() implementations? I bet you have - all too often the output looks something like this:



Eclipse has a feature called detail formatters, which essentially override the default behavior of using toString() to get the formatted information for an object in the variables view. To set up a detail formatter, go to Window->Preferences->Java[+]->Debug[+]->Detail Formatters and add a new detail formatter. For a class like this:

public class WidgerFurmuzzit {
 
	private String name;
	public WidgerFurmuzzit(String name) {
		this.name = name;
	}
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		Object o = new WidgerFurmuzzit("Test, 123");
		System.out.println(o);
	}
}

Here is a valid example detail formatter:



Notice that the detail formatter has visibility to private members inside the object, which is a clear advantage over traditional System.out.println() techniques outside the debugger. Here is the final result of having the detail formatter enabled:



Detail formatters can be enabled and disabled during the execution of a program, so if you suddenly find a new object that you want to know more about during debugging without having to sift through all of the variable trees, just put a new detail formatter in and keep going.