ios - Can I see the view hierarchy I have in my app while debugging in Xcode?

Question

I am debugging my iOS app and since I have a view push/dismiss calls, I want to make sure I don't have any views in my stack that I wouldn't expect. Is it possible to see this in the Xcode debugger?

Answer 1

You might find lldb comes to the rescue with 'recursiveDescription'. Simply set a breakpoint at the point where you are interested in the view hierarchy. If for example you want everything in the window you can type

(lldb) po [[[[UIApplication sharedApplication] windows] firstObject] recursiveDescription]

Alternatively, I often find that when debugging views I am mostly interested in the hierarchy for a particular view. In that instance you can hook straight in to the point in code you are curious about (for example the viewDidAppear: method) and type:

(lldb) po [self.view recursiveDescription]

Note: With Xcode 6 Apple have added realtime view debugging which you can access from the debug bar.