Re: C++ Tracking primitive type value change

From:
"Francesco S. Carta" <entuland@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sun, 20 Jun 2010 09:26:12 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID:
<63e52402-0bbc-41ab-82c8-616326aca7cf@t10g2000yqg.googlegroups.com>
ljh131 <ljh...@gmail.com> wrote:

i have a complex program with weird bug that some int value is down to
zero unexpectedly.

so i want tracking this built-in type value, then i could debug
easily.

to do that, i made following ValueWatcher template class so i could
track almost changes of value except when ValueWatcher is
dereferencing. (i made these dereferencing operators because the
program needs int *, &)

        template <typename T>
        class ValueWatcher
        {
        public:
                ValueWatcher(const T &val)
                {
                        cout << "constructor with=

 raw value " << val << endl;

                        _cur = _old = val;
                }

                ValueWatcher(const ValueWatcher& vw)
                {
                        cout << "constructor with=

 ValueWatcher " << vw._cur << endl;

                        _cur = vw._cur;
                }

                ValueWatcher& operator=(const ValueWatc=

her &rhs)

                {
                        cout << "operator= with=

 ValueWatcher " << rhs._cur << endl;

                        _cur = rhs._cur;

                        onChanged();

                        return *this;
                }

                ValueWatcher& operator=(const T &val)
                {
                        cout << "operator= with=

 " << val << endl;

                        _cur = val;

                        onChanged();

                        return *this;
                }

                int *operator&()
                {
                        cout << "addressing opera=

tor" << endl;

                        // can't track anymore!!!=

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                        return &_cur;
                }

                operator int&()
                {
                        cout << "operator int&" <=

< endl;

                        // can't track anymore!!!=

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                        return _cur;
                }

                operator int&() const
                {
                        cout << "const operator i=

nt&" << endl;

                        return _cur;
                }

                operator int() const
                {
                        cout << "operator int" <<=

 endl;

                        return _cur;
                }

        private:
                void onChanged()
                {
                        // update old and do prop=

er action

                }

                T _cur;
                T _old;

        };

the problem is, when client code wants int & or int * of ValueWatcher,
- it can gives int & or int * anyway but - int * or & cannot hold
ValueWatcher instance, so can't tracking anymore.

is there anyway to solve this? i think it can be solved by returning
reference or pointer class instance instead of just returning & or *
of built-int type. but i don't know how to do that.


As a side note, you shouldn't use names starting with an underscore -
that range of names is reserved for the implementation. As =D6=F6 Tiib
suggested, stepping through the program with a debugger is advisable.
Breakpoints, conditional breakpoints and watchers will help you.

If you can touch the client code, you could do some debugging by hand
- that is, nail down the moment that the bug appears by printing out
the misbehaving variable at the entrance and at the exit of the
functions - also consider using some asserts in the critical points -
i.e. before calling a function that expects that variable not to be 0.

Hope that helps.

--
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