DataSet Watch 2.0

Introduction

I’ve been using the excellent VS2003 add-in called DataSet QuickWatch by Mohammed Barqawi, and also its enhanced version by Fahad Khalil, for a long time now. Visual Studio 2005 has Visualizers, but the default one for DataSets is too simplistic. So inspired by DataSet QuickWatch, I decided to create an advanced Visualizer for large DataSets.

The Code

One of the greatest features of Visual Studio 2005 is Visualizers. These are viewers for examining the values of complex type variables at runtime. The procedure I followed for creating a Visualizer was as follows:

Create the Visualizer

Create a project of type "Class Library". Rename your .cs file / class to your desired name.

Add a reference to Microsoft.VisualStudio.DebuggerVisualizers.dll and add the corresponding using clause to your class.

如: