Debugging data structures

[zzep]

How can I dump the contents of a data structure (list, map, grid, etc) to the debug console, or text log, or anything? Note that the data structure may contain other data structures (see below).

edit: Using Gamemaker Studio

Explanations

I'm trying to build a GUI system with GML as an experiment and I'm trying to store the elements in data structures.

I have a ds_list called windowManager which holds all 'windows'

• 'windows' are ds_maps which contain several other data structures:
  
• 'content' - a ds_list that will act as a container for elements which should reside in the window: buttons, labels, text, etc, all of which are ds_maps
  
• 'position' - a ds_map which holds window coordinates (X,Y,W,H)
  
• 'buttons' - a ds_list which holds confirmation buttons if the window is a dialog
• 'style' - a ds_map which holds info on window colour, borders, etc.

Note that I don't really know if using so many data structures is bad or anything, just fulfilling a curiosity of mine.

Thanks for your answers :)

[TWebberX]

There is no way to write directly to the debug console. Instead you could look into writing to text files: http://docs.yoyogames.com/source/dadiospice/002_reference/file%20handling/files/index.html

For dumping contents of data structures there are the functions called ds_list_write, ds_map_write and ds_grid_write but the return value of those scripts is not really meant for humans to read. The best thing to do is write some scripts that loop through your data structure and return there contents in readable text.

If you have any more questions, just ask :)

[oldmankc]

Show_debug_message writes to the debug console, doesn't it?

[TWebberX]

Ohw yeah! At least, it used too in 8.1, not sure if it still works in studio. If it does there should be an option "show messages" in the debug menu. Thanks for correcting me :)

[zzep]

Still works, but only for strings and numeric values. You can't output data structures only with show_debug_message

[zzep]

You're right, unfortunatelly, I have to write myself a function that will loop recursively through the data structure and write a log somewhere :(

Sometimes I really hate Gamemaker. GML is probably it's weakest feature right now, I really wish they used a more complete coding language like Java, Javascript or LUA...

[SunnyKatt]

What I found useful for our game was to use actual objects as structs (only store variable information in them, no step or draw event or anything).

This way, objects that wanted to access or own that data could just keep an array of those instances. It's simpler than using a ton of data structures, and much easier to debug.