Memory Windows
This topic applies to:
Visual Studio Edition |
Visual Basic |
C# |
C++ |
J# |
Express Edition |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
Standard Edition |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Pro/Team Edition |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
The Memory window is available only if address-level debugging is enabled the Options dialog box, Debugging node.
The Memory window provides a view into the memory space used by your application. The Watch window, QuickWatch, Autos window, and Locals window provide a way of looking at the content of variables, which are stored at specific locations in memory, but the Memory window shows you the large-scale picture. This view can be convenient for examining large pieces of data (buffers or large strings, for example) that do not display well in the other windows. The Memory window is not limited to displaying data, however. By definition, the Memory window displays everything in the memory space, whether it is data, code, or random bits of garbage in unassigned memory.
When examining memory contents in the Memory window, you can navigate through memory using the scrollbar that is part of the window's user interface, by typing in a memory address, or by using drag and drop. If you know the address of a data item you want to see, typing in the memory address is usually easier. You can type in a pointer to an item you want to view or an expression that uses the address-of operator to take the item's address.
You can customize the Memory window to display data in various formats, including hexadecimal or decimal display. For more information, see Customizing the Memory Window Display.
The memory window is not available for Script or SQL, which are languages that do not recognize the concept of memory.
Memory Window Tasks
The following topics describe the tasks you can perform with the Memory window: