Problem: Intellisense (I think I'm referring to the correct phenomenon) stopped working in run mode. I.e., mouse-over of variables doesn't popup a value window. Can someone direct me in the right direction to get debugging back on track?

Background:

I did some really ugly refactoring and had to do a lot of search/replace and other editing in a couple files of my project. Following that mess and a recompliation, I got a runtime error (access violation trying to access a null address, etc.), not unexpected.

For debugging, I set a breakpoint to examine values, but I could not examine any data values. Mouse-over of variables did not result in a popup value window. Right-clicking on a variable and "Add Watch" results in the watch window stating "identifier some-variable-name is not defined."

In a previous version of VS, Intellisense wouldn't work properly, I could delete the .ncb file, restart VS and all was again well. However, VS 2013 Express doesn't appear to have an equivalent file.

I cleaned/rebuilt the Solution with no effect on the problem.

I tried Tools->Import and Export Settings->Reset (as suggested somewhere on MSDN) which didn't work (made things worse - VS now restarts whenever I close it - but that's a different subject)

Any help is greatly appreciated.

EDIT: further info - compiled in debug mode; optimizations disabled.

I don't have Express (using Pro) but when Intellisense stops working, typically you can do Rescan Solution under the Project menu. This usually gets it going again. Haven't had to do the delete the database trick since 2010 iirc.

Rescan Solution appears to have done the trick. Thanks!

Good to hear. I find I have to do this almost every time I put an assert() in code. Something about the macro causes it to seize up.

Well, perhaps a feature of the express edition is that it doesn't cease up that particular way. <rant>Instead it restarts automatically whenever it's closed. The only way to get rid of VS is to catch the restart dialog (before it continues after a few seconds anyway) and quickly click Cancel. I can't really complain as I got what I paid for.

VS 2013 craps the shit with C#, too. Thought of starting a project with 2013, dropped it in middle of development and used 2012 instead. Using Bizpark MSDN subscription, so ultimate fails too :)

Recently, I gave 2013 a try too, Inteliisense died at some point, then I continued coding without it. At some point it recovered again, worked for a while, then inexplicably stopped working again. I can only say I plant to skip 2013 entirely. Sad, because not all C++11 features are available in 2012.

2012 had similar problems Intellisense problems. I think something would foul it up (like a macro) and it just needed a little reset. As mentioned before pre-2012 (again I think, since I don't have 2010 around anymore) the only fix was to close down the solution, delete the ncb files and reopen it. The lack of ncb database files would cause it to do the rescan. There is definitely room for improvement, but it is not nearly as bad as it used to be. Overall I've been happy with 2013, but look forward to more C++11 and C++14 support in the future.