How can I get the value / keys of NSDictionary objects in the debugger console?

Question

I set a breakpoint...

if I do:

(lldb) print [self dictionary]
(NSDictionary *) $5 = 0x0945c760 1 key/value pair

but if I do:

(lldb) print [[self dictionary] allKeys]
error: no known method '-allKeys'; cast the message send to the method's return type
error: 1 errors parsing expression

Even if I try to access the key that I know is in there..

(lldb) print [[self dictionary] objectForKey:@"foobar"]
error: no known method '-objectForKey:'; cast the message send to the method's return     type
error: 1 errors parsing expression

What am I doing wrong?

Solution 1

The lldb command print expects that the value you wish to print is a non-object. The command you should be using to print objects is po.

When you tell lldb to print the value it looks for a method called allKeys that returns a non-object and fails. Try the following command instead...

po [[self dictionary] allKeys]

Solution 2

To print the description of the object in GDB or LLDB you need to use print-object or po.

(lldb) po [self dictionary]
(lldb) po [[self dictionary] objectForKey:@"foobar"]

Solution 3

Why not just do

NSLog(@"dict: %@", dictionary);

or

NSLog(@"dict objectForKey:foobar = %@", [dictionary objectForKey:@"foobar"]);

Comments

[Ryan Poolos]

I think he's trying to get the information from the console not source code. However it is the better way to do it in my opinion.