Step filtering allows for uninteresting packages and classes to be ignored during step debugging.
SampleHandler
class's execute()
method.HandlerUtil
and then into ExecutionEvent
.
org.eclipse.ui
, followed by clicking on OK.getApplicationContext()
in the Execution Event
class.
getApplicationContext()
method, execution will drop through to the ExpressionContext
class's getVariable()
method instead.The Step Filters preferences allows uninteresting packages to be skipped, at least from the point of debugging. Typically, JVM internal classes (such as those beginning with sun
or sunw
) are not helpful when debugging and can easily be ignored. This also avoids debugging through the class loader, as it loads classes on demand.
Typically, it makes sense to enable all the default packages in the Step Filters dialog, as it's pretty rare to need to debug any of the JVM libraries (internal or public interfaces). This means when stepping through the code, if a common method such as List.toString()
is called, debugging won't step through the internal implementation.
It also makes sense to filter out simple setters and getters (those that just set a variable, or those that just return a variable). If the method is more complex (like the getVariable()
method discussed previously), it will still stop in the debugger.
Constructors and static initializers can also be specifically filtered.