Viewing LINQ Results
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You can view the result of a LINQ statement by using DataTips, the Watch window, and the QuickWatch dialog box. When you use a source window, you can pause the pointer on a query in the source window and a DataTip will appear. You can copy a LINQ variable and paste it into the Watch window or QuickWatch dialog box.
In LINQ, a query is not evaluated when it is created or declared, but only when the query is used. Therefore, the query does not have a value until it is evaluated. For a full description of query creation and evaluation, see Introduction to LINQ Queries (C#) or Writing Your First LINQ Query (Visual Basic).
To display the result of a query, the debugger must evaluate it. This implicit evaluation, which occurs when you view a LINQ query result in the debugger, has some effects you should consider:
Each evaluation of the query takes time. Expanding the results node takes time. For some queries, repeated evaluation might result in a noticeable performance penalty.
Evaluating a query can result in side effects, which are changes to the value of data or the state of your program. Not all queries have side effects. To determine whether a query may be safely evaluated without side effects, you must understand the code that implements the query.
See Also
Concepts
Exception Handling (Debugging)