Visualizing Arrays in the Eclipse Java IDE

The Eclipse Java debugger uses an indented list to view arrays at runtime. This visualization provides limited insight into the array. Also, it is cumbersome and time-consuming to search for certain values at an unknown index. We present a new Eclipse plug in for visualizing large arrays and collections while debugging Java programs. The plug in provides three views to visualize the data. These views are designed to support different tasks more efficiently. A tabular view gives detailed information about the elements in the array, such as the value of their field variables. A line chart aims to depict the values of a numerical field over the array. Lastly, bar charts and histograms show how the values of a field are distributed. We show how these views can be used to explore linear data structures and hashes from the Collections Framework. The plug in features tight integration with the Eclipse IDE, and is freely available as an open-source project. Developers' feedback confirmed the utility of the plug in to explore large arrays in real-world scenarios.