CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++cwindows
G. Maniatis
G. Maniatis

Reputation: 131

Can I access the width and height from a Windows RECT struct without calculating it?

After passing a pointer to a RECT struct to AdjustWindowRect(), Windows fills out the left, top, right, and bottom fields for me. I can easily enough calculate the width and the height I need from the fields, but I noticed something in the Visual Studio debugger. In the Value column of the Watch window, the value for the RECT variable (AdjustedWindowRect) shows a grouping of the fields that I'm not used to (LT & RB, which I assume to mean left/top & right/bottom) and also displays the width and height in braces at the end. Is this just a feature of the debugger, or can I access the width and height values from the struct without having to do the calculations in the code?

image

Upvotes: 0

Views: 483

Answers (1)

Soonts
Soonts

Reputation: 21956

You can’t. It’s formatted by the debugger. Specifically, see this XML:

<Type Name="tagRECT">
    <AlternativeType Name="CRect"></AlternativeType>
    <DisplayString>{{LT({left}, {top}) RB({right}, {bottom})  [{right-left} x {bottom-top}]}}</DisplayString>
</Type>

That code is from in windows.natvis file, on my PC it’s in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\Packages\Debugger\Visualizers\.

BTW, you can easily add custom visualizers for your own types, write a similar *.natvis file, include in project, and the IDE will use it for debugging.

Upvotes: 1

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