EDIT
For the record, this version of ShowIt is particularly useful, it can be used in conjunction with ReapTags defined here http://stackoverflow.com/a/6245166/884752. To see the list of keys defined in the debugSymbol containing the results extracted from a program you can use the function Keys defined in http://mathematica.stackexchange.com/a/999/66. I've also incorporated the answer of Szabolcs into ShowIt, the answer of Mr. Wizard to the question Delete contexts from a string representation of a symbol and the answer to this question How to Print to the Console.
- The Print output using \$ShowIt = True allows to use it in the front end if you change its style to Input.
- \$ReverseIt = True allows to Print the result of Print in a reverse order as asked in this question.
- The Message if you switch it on using On[Debug::ShowIt] prints a Mathematica message and would stop the code if you used a message breakpoint in Mathematica or Wolfram Workbench.
- \$SowIt = True allows to store what would be printed with Print in a symbol.
- $ConsoleIt = True allows to output what would be output with Print but in the Messages console accessible in the menu Window>Messages.
- The System` context of ShowIt and ShowItList allows to use them in the Private` context of other packages without having to define the package in which these functions are defined (in BeginPackage, see here for more info on the organisation of packages).
All in all ShowIt and the functions around it show a lot of different aspects of advanced evaluation in Mathematica that could be interesting to a lot of people.
SetAttributes[ExtractSymbolName, HoldAll];
ExtractSymbolName[expr_] :=
Module[{T,SR = StringReplace[#, a__ ~~ "$" ~~ DigitCharacter .. :> a] &},
Defer[expr]
/. s_Symbol :> T@MakeExpression@SR@SymbolName@Unevaluated@s
/. T@_@x___ :> x
];
insertBelowEvaluationCell[expr_]:=
(
SelectionMove[EvaluationNotebook[],After,EvaluationCell];
NotebookWrite[EvaluationNotebook[],Cell[BoxData@ToBoxes[expr],"Print"]]
);
$OldLine = -1;
SetAttributes[PrintToConsole, HoldFirst];
PrintToConsole[expr_] :=
(
SelectionMove[MessagesNotebook[], After, Cell];
NotebookWrite[
MessagesNotebook[],
Cell[BoxData[ToBoxes[Defer@expr]], "Print",
CellLabel -> "During evaluation of In[" <> ToString[$Line-1] <> "]:=",
ShowCellLabel -> ($OldLine =!= $Line)]
];
$OldLine = $Line;
);
System`Debug::ShowIt = "`1`";
Off[Debug::ShowIt];
SetAttributes[System`ShowIt, HoldAll];
System`ShowIt[expr__] := System`ShowIt[{expr}];
System`ShowIt[expr_] :=
With[{evaluatedExpr = expr,exprWithSymbolNamesCorrected = ExtractSymbolName@expr},
Message[Debug::ShowIt,Defer[exprWithSymbolNamesCorrected = evaluatedExpr]];
If[TrueQ@System`$ShowIt,
If[TrueQ@System`$ReverseIt,
insertBelowEvaluationCell[Defer[exprWithSymbolNamesCorrected = evaluatedExpr]];
,
Print[Defer[exprWithSymbolNamesCorrected = evaluatedExpr]];
];
];
If[TrueQ@System`$ConsoleIt,
PrintToConsole[exprWithSymbolNamesCorrected = evaluatedExpr];
];
If[TrueQ@System`$SowIt,
Sow[
evaluatedExpr
,
Function[deferedExpr, ToString@Unevaluated@deferedExpr, HoldFirst] @@ exprWithSymbolNamesCorrected
];
];
evaluatedExpr
];
SetAttributes[System`ShowItList, {HoldAll,Listable}];
System`ShowItList[expr__]:=System`ShowItList[{expr}];
System`ShowItList[expr_] := System`ShowIt[expr];
SetAttributes[ReapTags,HoldFirst];
ReapTags[expr_]:=
Module[{elements},
Reap[expr,_,(elements[#1]=If[Length@#2==1,First@#2,#2])&];
elements
];
Example
$ShowIt=True; $SowIt = True; $ReverseIt=False; $ConsoleIt = True; On[Debug::ShowIt];
debugResult = ReapTags[x={1,2};y=3;z=4;ShowIt@Mean@x;ShowIt@z;ShowItList[x,y];ShowItList@{x,y};];
debugResult["Mean[x]"]
debugResult["x"]
debugResult["y"]
debugResult["z"]
The argument of ReapTags can be any expression including the call to a function which is hard to split into simple pieces thus using Reap and Sow as underlying functions is useful in such a case.