Visual studio Debugger Copy object

Question

I am wondering if anything like this exists:

When debugging in visual studio it would be really good if it had the ability to copy an object(all its properties and values) into memory. I am thinking of something that you could put a break point in code -> right click the object -> Click "create moq into clipboard"

Then you could go to your unit test, paste the text which would paste the code to create that object with all of those properties.

I imagine this would save loads of time, and would be really useful for fixing bugs.

One of the difficult things I find with unit test is the manual process in creating the mock objects.

Answer 1

I'm a bit late to the party but I created a Visual Studio extension that does something very similar to what you're looking for. It will generate C# code to initialize an object from your visual studio debugging windows.

Here's the extension: Visual Studio Marketplace > Object Explorer

And here's an accompanying blog post: Exporting Objects from the Visual Studio Debugger

Answer 2

If you find it onerous to create mock objects, there is likely a problem with your design or the way your using mock objects. You shouldn't create mocks for simple 'value' objects - just use the actual objects in your unit tests. For more complex objects that your object-under-test interacts with, the interactions should be few, otherwise you may have excessive coupling between objects. As a rule of thumb, if it's hard to test, the design is probably wrong.