Breakpoints, Watches & Immediate Window: Advanced Debugging in VBA

Master the VBE’s tools to see what your code is doing—live.

---

Breakpoints (F9)

Stop execution at a line to inspect state. Conditional breakpoints: right-click breakpoint → Condition.

---

Watches

Track variable expressions while stepping.

1. Debug → Add Watch
2. Enter expression (e.g., lastRow or Cells(r, "C").Value)
3. Choose Break When Value Is True to pause automatically

---

Immediate Window (Ctrl+G)

Evaluate expressions and call procedures at runtime.

? Worksheets("Data").Range("A1").Value
Call TestProcedure(42)

---

Practical example

Sub Analyze()
    Dim lastRow As Long, r As Long
    lastRow = Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row
    For r = 2; r <= lastRow; r = r + 1
        Debug.Print r, Cells(r, "A").Value
    Next r
End Sub

Set a Watch on lastRow, a Breakpoint inside the loop, and print diagnostic output in Immediate.