Go Debug Watch

A lightweight, colorful debugging library for Go that provides pretty-printed variable inspection during development.

Features

• 🎨 Colorized output for better readability
• 🔍 Automatic variable name detection
• ⏰ Timestamp for each watch call
• 📍 File and line number tracking
• 🎯 Function name context
• 🎭 Pretty printing for complex types
• 💪 Type-safe with Go generics
• 🚀 Zero external dependencies

Installation

go get github.com/Neaj-Morshad-101/go-debug-watch/pkg/watch

Usage

import "github.com/Neaj-Morshad-101/go-debug-watch/pkg/watch"

func main() {
    // Watch primitive types
    name := "John Doe"
    watch.Watch(name)
    // Output: [12:34:56.789] (main) name = "John Doe"   // at main.go:6

    // Watch slices
    numbers := []int{1, 2, 3}
    watch.Watch(numbers)
    // Output: [12:34:56.789] (main) numbers = Slice [
    //     1 2 3
    // ]   // at main.go:10

    // Watch maps
    scores := map[string]int{"math": 95, "science": 88}
    watch.Watch(scores)
    // Output: [12:34:56.789] (main) scores = Map {
    //     math: 95,
    //     science: 88
    // }   // at main.go:14

    // Watch structs
    type Person struct {
        Name string
        Age  int
    }
    person := Person{Name: "Alice", Age: 30}
    watch.Watch(person)
    // Output: [12:34:56.789] (main) person = Struct {
    //     Name: "Alice",
    //     Age: 30
    // }   // at main.go:23
}

Output Format

Each watch call produces a line of output with the following components:

• Timestamp: [HH:MM:SS.mmm]
• Function name: (functionName)
• Variable name: Automatically detected from source
• Value: Pretty-printed with type information
• Location: File and line number

Color Scheme

• 🔵 Blue: Timestamps
• 🟡 Yellow: Function names
• 🟢 Green: Variable names
• 🔴 Red: Nil values
• 🟣 Purple: Type information
• 🟦 Cyan: Values
• ⬜ Gray: File locations

Supported Types

• All primitive types
• Strings
• Slices and Arrays
• Maps
• Structs
• Pointers
• Complex types (nested structures)
• nil values

Development

Running Tests

go test ./pkg/watch

Benchmarks

go test -bench=. ./pkg/watch

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Acknowledgments

• Inspired by the debug patterns in various programming languages
• Built with ❤️ for the Go community