topic Re: difference between watch point and break point in Application Development and Automation Discussions

difference between watch point and break point

Former Member — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:55:51 GMT

hi to all

can you explain the difference between break point and watch point.

thanks in advance

Re: difference between watch point and break point

Former Member — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:58:30 GMT

Hi,

A breakpoint is a signal at a particular point in the program that tells the ABAP runtime processor to interrupt processing and start the Debugger. The Debugger is activated when the program reaches this point.Max 30 breakpoints we can use.

There is a special kind of breakpoint called a watchpoint. When you use watchpoints, the Debugger is not activated until the contents of a particular field change ie...Watchpoints allow you the option of monitoring the content of individual variables.The Debugger stops as soon as the value of the monitored variable changes.You can use max of 5 watchpoints.

Difference

1. Break Point.

At particular LINE of SOURCE CODE,

the system will STOP there.

2. Watch Point.

If you want to interrupt a program when the contents of a field or structure change, use a watchpoint. You can set up to five watchpoints, including watchpoints for strings.

(For this, we have to give some

VARIABLE NAME & VARIABLE VALUE - with relational operator)

When this CONDITION gets satisfied,

(anywhere during the execution of the program),

the system will AUTOMATICALLY STOP THERE.

(EG when the value of matnr reaches the specified value)

That is the purpose of WATCHPOINT

(the system will WATCH it, like a dog)

Please go through this link:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/c6/617cdce68c11d2b2ab080009b43351/content.htm

Rgds,

Yogesh

Re: difference between watch point and break point

Former Member — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:59:05 GMT

Hi,

Breakpoints

In the Breakpoints area, you will see a list of all the breakpoints set so far. If one of the breakpoints has just been reached, this is marked with a yellow arrow. The visibility (Debugger, session, user) and type (line, ABAP command, u2026) is displayed for each breakpoint.

If you double click the Navigation() column, the system will display the breakpoint in the respective source code.

The visibility of a breakpoint can be changed through the dropdown list. To change the visibility of several breakpoints, mark them and select the pushbutton Save as Session Breakpoint or Save as User Breakpoint.

You can change the visibility of all Debugger breakpoints using the menu path Breakpoints-> Save Debugger BPs as -> ....

In addition, you have functions for creating, changing, activating and deactivating breakpoints at your disposal.

Watchpoints

in the Watchpoints area, you will see a list of all the watchpoints set so far. The watchpoint last set is highlighted with a yellow arrow.

For each watchpoint you will see not only the current value but the value before the last changed. (Technically speaking, each time you create the watchpoint and each time the watchpoint variable is changed, a clone of this variable is created.)

In this way, you can always determine what changes have been made to the monitored variable. For complicated data structures, such as internal tables or structures, select the pushbutton u201ECompare Variablesu201C( ) and choose the Diff tool to compare the old and new variable values.

Checkpoints

In addition, you can edit conditional and unconditional checkpoints using the Breakpoints tool. This function is provided in the new Debugger only. Conditional checkpoints are set first in the source code using the ASSERTstatement; unconditional checkpoints are set using the BREAK-POINT statement. These have the effect that programs will be continued only if a preset condition is fulfilled. In the following window, these checkpoints can be searched for, activated, or deactivated.

In addition, you have functions for creating, changing, activating and deactivating watchpoints at your disposal.

Reward If helpfull,

Naresh.

Re: difference between watch point and break point

Former Member — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:00:31 GMT

A breakpoint is set to occur at a specific line of a program, and will always stop the code from processing at that point (and invoke the debugger). A watchpoint will cause the execution to stop when a specified variable reaches a pre-set value (ie. SY-SUBRC <> 0). The code execution will then stop regardless of where the watchpoint has occurred.

Watchpoints are nice to set when you want to figure out what causes a certain value to be set, without knowing exactly where it happens in your code.

Re: difference between watch point and break point

Former Member — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:01:16 GMT

Hi,

Break Point means when you want to stop the control to the desired statement. then you go for the break point .

Example: IF you have 10 lines of code and if you put a break point at line number 80. then if the control comes to the line number 80. then the debugger will stop automatically othewise it will flow further.

Watch point: when you want to see if any variable value is chagned to some other value and in that case you should go for the watch point..

Example: if you variable "FLAG" is value '0' initaily.. now if you want to see the when this flag gets changed to value '1'. Then in that case you should go for the watch point...

Re: difference between watch point and break point

Former Member — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:01:31 GMT

[help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/en/e2/5f5a42ed221253e10000000a155106/content.htm]

Regards

lakshman