Debug.Writeline is Not printing anything

Question

VS 2010 Pro, C#, WinForms: at the very beginning of my method I am saying Debug.Writeline("entering method blah"); then somewhere inside this method I am putting some breakpoints and run the program. so I see that execution is stopped at those break points, so it is here! but if I search the Output->Debug combobox mode and also Immediate window I cannot find the message I has written for Debug.Writeline anywhere.

I also tried that heck box setting in Debug options that says "Redirect all output to Immediate window"....did not help either.

Is the DEBUG symbol defined? (you can do that for the profile named "Debug") — Marc Gravell, Sep 19 '11 at 21:17
@MarcGravell : I am not sure how to check what you mentioned. Do you mean pdb files? yes they are being created. — Bohn, Sep 19 '11 at 21:19
go to project-properties in the IDE; there will be a checkbox relating to defining the DEBUG constant; make sure it is checked on debug builds — Marc Gravell, Sep 19 '11 at 21:22
@MarcGravell : Perfect. Thanks Sir. it is working now. it was not checked by default. — Bohn, Sep 19 '11 at 21:27
Possible duplicate of [Debug.WriteLine not working](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1370449/debug-writeline-not-working) — StayOnTarget, Apr 11 '18 at 19:14

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 19 '11 at 21:39

Discussed already in the comments, but I wasn't sure until discussing it there. However:

calls to Debug.Whatever(...) are typically marked with [Conditional("DEBUG")], meaning they require the DEBUG symbol to be defined, otherwise those calls are not compiled
a default project has DEBUG and TRACE defined for the "Debug" profile, and TRACE for the "Release" profile
however, you can disable the DEBUG symbol via a checkbox in "project properties"

So; go to project-properties, and ensure the DEBUG symbol is defined (or not) as appropriate for your needs (for any-and-all profiles that exist in your project).

Serge V. · Answer 2 · 2016-10-25T03:35:39.897

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Make sure you press F5 to Start Debugging mode (not Ctr+F5).

F5 Starting Debugging

CTRL+F5 Starting Without Debugging

edited Oct 25 '16 at 03:35

answered Oct 25 '16 at 01:57

Serge V.

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 11 '14 at 13:41

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if Debug does not print anything (and you can't breakpoint on it) : you also have to check "TRACE" in project properties.

answered Jan 11 '14 at 13:41

Poppyto

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 02 '17 at 08:00

If there is still no output after all, check the message types that are enabled for the output window:

Right-Click inside the content area of the Output-Window.
Make sure "Program Output" is selected for example. (It should look like the screenshot)

Debug.Writeline is Not printing anything

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