ado.net - How to view a DataTable while debugging

Question

I'm just getting started using ADO.NET and DataSets and DataTables. One problem I'm having is it seems pretty hard to tell what values are in the data table when trying to debug.

What are some of the easiest ways of quickly seeing what values have been saved in a DataTable? Is there someway to see the contents in Visual Studio while debugging or is the only option to write the data out to a file?

I've created a little utility function that will write a DataTable out to a CSV file. Yet the the resulting CSV file created was cut off. About 3 lines from what should have been the last line in the middle of writing out a System.Guid the file just stops. I can't tell if this is an issue with my CSV conversion method, or the original population of the DataTable.

Update

Forget the last part I just forgot to flush my stream writer.

Answer 1

With a break point set, after the DataTable or DataSet is populated, you can see a magnifying glass if you hover over the variable. If you click on it, it will bring up the DataTable Visualizer, which you can read about here.

In this image you see below, dt is my DataTable variable and the breakpoint was hit a few lines below allowing me to hover over this value. Using Visual Studio 2008.

DataTable Visualizer (image credit):