This post originated from an RSS feed registered with .NET Buzz by Tim Sneath. Original Post: Debugging DataSets Feed Title: Tim Sneath's Blog Feed URL: /msdnerror.htm?aspxerrorpath=/tims/Rss.aspx Feed Description: Random mumblings on Microsoft, .NET, and other topics. Latest .NET Buzz Posts Latest .NET Buzz Posts by Tim Sneath Latest Posts From Tim Sneath's Blog

When you're debugging code with Visual Studio .NET, it's really hard to see what data is currently contained within a DataSet. Sure, the Locals window will show any DataSet objects currently in scope, but finding out what data is contained within them is not easy.

Two good ways of accessing this information both revolve around the XML methods available on the object. Firstly, if you've got a console window associated with your application, you can do:
   ds.WriteXml(Console.Out);
which uses the stream-based overload of the WriteXml method to dump the DataSet to the console.

It's even easier if you've got a VS.NET Command window open (hit Ctrl+Alt+A). Make sure you're in immediate mode by entering immed, and then simply run:
   ? ds.GetXml()
This dumps the contents of the DataSet to the Command window.