Get current method's current method caller

General
#1

I have heard of CurrentMethodName. Is there an easy solution to getting the name of the method that called the current method, for example:

Sub MyMethodCaller
MyMethod()
End Sub

Sub MyMethod
System.DebugLog(CurrentMethodCallerName) //return 'MyMethodCaller'
End Sub

Thanks

#2

[quote=121433:@Oliver Scott-Brown]I have heard of CurrentMethodName. Is there an easy solution to getting the name of the method that called the current method, for example:

Sub MyMethodCaller
MyMethod()
End Sub

Sub MyMethod
System.DebugLog(CurrentMethodCallerName) //return 'MyMethodCaller'
End Sub

[/quote]

You can keep a log of currentmethodname changes in an array so all you have to do is look which name was before the current one.

#3

An easy way would be to add a methodCaller parameter to the method which is being called:

[code]Sub MyMethodCaller
MyMethod(CurrentMethodName)
End Sub

Sub MyMethod(methodCaller as string)
System.DebugLog(methodCaller)
End Sub[/code]

Or you could do it by raising and catching an exception and examining the stack trace:

[code] dim methodCaller as string
try
dim n as new NilObjectException
Raise n
catch err as NilObjectException
dim s() as String = err.Stack
s = Split(s(1),"%")
methodCaller = s(0) //this would give the full path to the method, i.e. window1.mymethod, module1.mymethod, etc

's = Caller.Split(".")
'methodCaller = s(s.Ubound) //this would give just the name of the method and not the full path to it

end try
//methodCaller is now the name of the calling method[/code]

#4

I think I found what I was looking for. And that is the stack trace. I just need this info recorded in the IDE. Thanks

#5

You could always trigger an exception to get the stack.

#6

Thanks.

#7

xDev 13.6 Nov/Dec 2015 Tip 5: Who’s calling?

Sometimes you come across a question and shortly after you come across an answer to the question. That happened again when a few weeks ago I saw a thread on the forum where people debugging a problem wished for a simple way to know from where their methods were called. And then I ran across a [blog post] (http://www.realsoftwareblog.com/2012/05/debugging-tips.html) on the old REALbasic site where Thomas Tempelman addressed exactly that problem in quite a nifty way.

Basically he uses the fact that instances have a scope, a limited life time that ends when the method or event they are created in terminates. So he creates a MethodProfiler class with a Constructor and a Destructor that do the logging. When you instantiate a new MethodProfiler object then you pass it the name of the current method like this:

    Sub myMethod()
        dim myTmpObject as new MethodProfiler(CurrentMethodName)

Consequently when you create the class at the beginning of a method then the Constructor logs where that happens, and it stores the passed method name in its own mName property for later use in the Destructor:

    Sub Constructor(name as String)
        System.DebugLog "<"+name+"> Entered"
        mName = name
    End Sub

At the end of the method the MethodProfiler instance is destroyed and the Destructor is called - which logs that too:

    Sub Destructor()
        LogMsg "<"+mName+"> Exited"
    End Sub

So in the log you can easily follow your apps progress.

But you can do much more with it too:

  • you can globally enable/disable debugging
  • you could measure the time that the method takes to execute
  • you could count the depth, allowing you to indent the output, making it more readable if you have nested calls you want to trace.

For your convenience, Thomas made a demo project with a ready-to-use MethodProfiler class for you to [download] (http://files.tempel.org/RB/MethodProfiler.rbp.zip).

#8

dim methodCaller as string try dim n as new NilObjectException Raise n catch err as NilObjectException dim s() as String = err.Stack s = Split(s(1),"%") methodCaller = s(0) end try

This code works fine on linux/mac but on windows err.stack is an empy rows array.

#9