Conditional Breakpoints and Hit Counts

You can use conditional breakpoints and hit counts to control when breakpoints are executed.

A condition limits when a breakpoint is executed. The condition can be any valid expression recognized by the debugger.

Each breakpoint also has a hit count, which specifies the number of times a breakpoint must be hit before it is executed. By default, the hit count is set to 0, meaning the breakpoint executes each time it is hit. You change how frequently a breakpoint is executed by specifying a positive hit count value.

Each time execution passes through the breakpoint, the debugger evaluates any condition expression. If the expression is true, the debugger increments a counter for the breakpoint, and compares its new value to the hit count setting:

If the breakpoint counter is lower than the hit count, the breakpoint is not triggered.
If the breakpoint counter is equal to or higher than the hit count, the debugger triggers the breakpoint and resets the breakpoint counter to 0.

If you specify a hit count of 3 and the condition notisNull(val), PowerBuilder checks whether val is NULL each time the statement is reached. The breakpoint is triggered on the third occurrence of a non-NULL val, then again on the sixth occurrence, and so on.