Your step-into request resulted in an automatic step-over of a property or operator

Question

I am getting the following error message while running .net 3.5 applciation

Your step-into request resulted in an automatic step-over of a property or operator.

This behavior can be overridden in the context menu for the line being executed by choosing 'Step Into Specific' or by unchecking the option 'Step over properties and operators'.

Do you want continue being notified when an automatic step-over happens?

What does this error message mean?

score 58 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 08 '23 at 14:49

58

VS2017, VS2019 and VS2022:

Tools > Options > Debugging > Uncheck "Step over properties and operators > (Managed only)".

edited Mar 08 '23 at 14:49

Fabio says Reinstate Monica

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answered Mar 08 '17 at 09:41

radbyx

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Detailed explanation is here. http://www.blackwasp.co.uk/AutoStepOver.aspx It is not my blog though. – Merin Nakarmi Dec 26 '17 at 18:25

Brian Rasmussen · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-10T16:23:19.667

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It is not an error message as such. The IDE is telling you that tracing for some of your code is being skipped during debugging due to the current settings. If you want to be able to trace into the code, change the settings as described in the message.

You can change this behavior by going to: Tools -> Option -> Debugging.

edited Dec 10 '15 at 16:23

answered Apr 20 '10 at 06:27

Brian Rasmussen

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i think its useful to have it enabled.. any ideas on how to just stop the confirmation popup from showing up all the time? – Sonic Soul May 16 '17 at 20:44
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@SonicSoul it's right in the message box - "Do you want continue being notified when an automatic step-over happens?" Click no – Mike G Jan 29 '20 at 16:07
Is *[this](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2672996/your-step-into-request-resulted-in-an-automatic-step-over-of-a-property-or-opera/60531199#60531199)* the reason – Irf Mar 04 '20 at 17:16

score 33 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 14 '11 at 18:00

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The setting for this in VS2010 is under: Tools -> Option -> Debugging (near the middle)

answered Mar 14 '11 at 18:00

Jess

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i don't want to disable it, just stop the popup.. its incredibly annoying – Sonic Soul May 16 '17 at 20:43
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@SonicSoul It asks if you want to be asked again. If you click No, does it ask you again? – idbrii Mar 06 '18 at 17:39

score 20 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 20 '12 at 04:23

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To be more specific: the option to enable in Visual Studio 2010 is:

Tools->Options->Debugging->General->Enable property evaluation and other implicit function calls

answered Dec 20 '12 at 04:23

Jay Baxter

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Incorrect setting in VS2017. Correct one is "Step over properties and operators". – DiskJunky Mar 21 '18 at 12:43

score 15 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 26 '14 at 05:37

As answered by other people this is an informational message from Visual Studio telling you that it could have stepped into a line of code but rather stepped over it due to current dev environment settings.

There are three ways to change this behaviour in VS2012:

Change the settings: Tools->Options->Debugging->General->Step over properties and operators OR
Right click on the line of code to get the context menu. Then untick: Step over properties and operators OR
Select 'Step into Specific' in the right click context menu which will ask you which specific function you would like to step into. It will list all the properties/functions involved in the current source line.

score 9 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 17 '14 at 20:16

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In Visual Studio 2013: right click on the line that caused the message to pop-up. This will bring up the context menu. Uncheck the option: Step over properties and operators.

answered Apr 17 '14 at 20:16

Gustav Swanepoel

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score 9 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 14:31

Other posts have the correct answer, which state that you can change the option in Tools > Options > Debugging > Step over properties and operators (Managed only) in Visual Studio. I wanted to add an image from the Options dialog for those who are visual. Uncheck the property if you want to perform Step Into (F11) without automatic Step Over (F10).

score 4 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 04 '20 at 17:02

The reason that we get this prompt is:
that we may have created properties or operators in our classes, and when, during debugging, we reach that line of code, it is stepped over (like the effect of F10 ) instead of stepping into ( the actual effect of F11 )

e.g., this line of code,

having pressed F11 here, resulted into effect of pressing F10
So Visual Studio notifies us..and gives this beautiful, well illustrated message, which I could only understand when I read the following blogpost

Credits: AutoStepOver a blog post

score 1 · Answer 9 · edited Feb 28 '23 at 15:11

The other answers are sufficient for turning the feature on or off. But what they lack is the insight as to why one would want to do one or the other.

For beginning C# programmers, their property method is a simple {get,set}. Since this code is not worth viewing, we check the box "Step over properties...".

However, when your property settings become more interesting, you may want to step into the property method to ensure it's behavior is correct. Once you tell the IDE "Don't bother me any more", then later when your "step into" fails for a complex property method, now it's your fault.

My recommendation would be either to remember how to switch the option on and off for future debugging sessions or uncheck the "Step over..." setting and learn to toggle between F11 and F10 as appropriate.

Another option is never to use "step into". Just set a breakpoint in the method/property/operator you want to debug and click the step (F10). This way you step into only the methods you are debugging.

Your step-into request resulted in an automatic step-over of a property or operator

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