Visual studio - how to catch debug (break) after show message box - c++

Question

I have a situation like this. In my code, there are countless code blocks like this.
try
{
DoSomething();
}
catch( Ogre::Exception& e )//Yes, I'm using Ogre, but you get the idea :)
{
MessageBoxA( NULL, e.getFullDescription().c_str(), "An exception has occured!",
MB_OK | MB_ICONERROR | MB_TASKMODAL );
}
I don't want to put breakpoint at every catch block. So each time an exception is thrown, a message box show up - I click ok and program close.
What I want is after I click Ok on the message box, Visual studio catch debug in the message box thread and I can see what happens down there in the source code.
Note: I don't know if 'catch debug' is a proper word, when I say 'catch debug', I mean: activate 'Step into' (F11)/'Step over' (F10) feature of Debug mode --> A yellow arrowhead in the margin of a source appears. Maybe the right word is 'break'.
PS: in my situation, I can just use the 'Exception settings' (for VS older than 2015, check this post) to Break When Throw all C++ Exceptions. Then when any C++ exception is throw, my VS 2015 will break to let me see what happens. Yet, I still want to solve this question, maybe there are situations when it is not exception but just message box - then a skill to break after message box is shown is required.

Answer 1

You are underestimating the power of Exception Settings. It allows you to carefully filter out types of the exceptions that you want to intercept. Open Exception Settings window, uncheck "C++ Exceptions" checkbox, select "C++ Exceptions" item (so entire line is highlighted, this will also activate "+" button on toolbar), press "+" button (or use context menu entry) to add Ogre::Exception type to the list of exceptions, check Ogre::Exception checkbox so only it will be intercepted.

Answer 2

If you had used MessageBox macro instead of implicitly using MessageBoxA, then you could have done a macro redefine inserting a DebugBreak() afterwards.
I think what I would try at this point is to place a breakpoint at User32!MessageBoxA. This way you get a break before each message box is executed. Then you F10 that call, which will execute the message box, when you press OK it returns back to debugger and you can inspect your code.

Answer 3

Add comment as the solution:
In VS2017, you could use the new feature called "Using the New Exception Helper" under Tools->Options->Debugging. It could provide much more debugging information than previous version like breaking on the Line of Code or faster breaking for Unhandled Exceptions and others.

Answer 4

If you want to stop the execution right after you enter the catch block, you want to use a function like DebugBreak(). Here is a snippet that you can try:
try
{
throw out_of_range("hello, stackoverflow");
}
catch (exception& e)
{
// Exection wil stop here.
// You will see the exception thrown above in the Output console.
DebugBreak();
}
Note that it will also work on the Release builds, not only in Debug.
EDIT
If you want exactly that yellow arrow, you could use a dirty hack that is VERY, VERY BAD PRACTICE:
try
{
throw out_of_range("hello, stackoverflow");
}
catch (exception& e)
{
// Now you will get the yellow arrow.
// From here, you could acces the call stack console that VS provides.
// By the way, you could have also done that in the previous example.
int b[1];
b[1000] = 0;
}