Java Inline Debug Code

Question

I'm looking for some best practice advice here. I have a library that I'd like to add some debug code into (think System.out.println) that only gets executed if a flag is set in a configuration file.

This is fairly trivial and will have the desired output for helping debug the program as I go along. That being said it seems heavy handed in that I'll have a lot of if(DEBUG) statements floating around my production code. I'm less worried about the efficiency of the code and more about the readability in terms of the statements that actually do something vs those that are just their for debugging.

I understand that with most IDEs I could simply step through the code to effectively give myself a more manual debugging option, but I've found for any code base that is sufficiently iterative that method is more of a pain than just dumping things to the console. I suppose another option could be to use a logging framework that has a DEBUG setting, but I still feel like the extra logging instructions would be just as ugly as just shipping them to the console.

Are there any options I'm missing here? Are their debugging frameworks in Java that make this cleaner? For point of reference I'd like to know when some specific methods get called and the string representation of various objects at different points in the execution.

Thanks in advance.

user1335794 · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-16 14:27:36Z

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I don't quite understand your problem, but I still sugget you using a logging framework, such as log4j, it allow you to choose generate your logging infomation to a file, database or console. Much powerful that using system.out.

answered May 16, 2012 at 14:27

user1335794

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Nathan Ryan Over a year ago

If code readability is so much of an issue, he could use aspect logging.

Garrett Hall · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-16 14:35:25Z

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You can use AspectJ to keep logging out of production code and make it a lot easier to read. With the right point-cuts, you probably won't need to write nearly as much debug code either. If you are spending lots of time debugging, consider unit-testing or a more disciplined approach to development. Also, never catch an exception and log when you should be throwing.

answered May 16, 2012 at 14:35

Garrett Hall

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Etienne Neveu · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-07 12:57:51Z

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In IntelliJ IDEA, you can add breakpoints that log a message or an evaluated expression to the console. When it hits the breakpoint, it will simply log and continue execution.

I often use this, combined with conditional breakpoints, to act as debug statements and get a clearer picture of what my code is doing during debugging.

The cool thing is that you don't have to modify the source code, since the logging statements are added at runtime by the debugger.

I think Eclipse lets you do the same.

answered Jan 7, 2013 at 12:57

Etienne Neveu

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