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Associate III
Jul 9, 2026 11:21 PM UTC
Solved

Variable Watch slow/How to change value format on the fly

Hi,

 

I’m really liking the STM32CubeIDE Extension for VSCode. Definitely a huge leap forward.

One of the few things that I miss from STM32CubeIDE based on Eclipse (the “old” one) is the variable Watch (not live watch, regular watch) speed. It seems significantly slower on VSCode. I deal with a lot of multidimensional matrices so it’s very noticeable for me.

 

Additionally, I know I can run some preRunCommands to set the watch variables to hex. But I cannot seem to figure out how to change them to binary or back to decimal while I’m debugging. This is a feature I use a lot since I deal with mixed formats in my projects.

 

Any help is much appreciated

Thanks

Florent V
Florent VBest answer
ST Employee
Jul 15, 2026 6:41 AM UTC

Hi ​@Visques,

The Variable Watch is a native view in VSCode. It has refresh limitations (just like our Live Variable Watch view).
We have an internal ticket to improve our view so it is more responsive and could potentially offer the “classic watch” (not live) at the same time.

Regarding displaying variables in hex/dec...:
For now, we do not have a menu or button to change the format.
However, just like with the “preRunCommand” attribute, it is possible to change it during the debug session.

In the Debug Console, to switch back to decimal, for example:
 

Be careful: you must include the ‘>’ character, even if it already appears in the debug console field.
Note: we know that this is not ideal. Improving this point is also planned.

KR,
/Flo

To give better visibility on the answered topics, please click on Accept as Solution on the reply which solved your issue or answered your question.

4 replies

Nawres GHARBI
ST Technical Moderator
Jul 13, 2026 8:06 AM UTC

Hi ​@Visques 

thanks for the feedback I’m transferring this to the dev team 

VisquesAuthor
Associate III
Jul 13, 2026 4:04 PM UTC

Thank you

Florent V
Florent VBest answer
ST Employee
Jul 15, 2026 6:41 AM UTC

Hi ​@Visques,

The Variable Watch is a native view in VSCode. It has refresh limitations (just like our Live Variable Watch view).
We have an internal ticket to improve our view so it is more responsive and could potentially offer the “classic watch” (not live) at the same time.

Regarding displaying variables in hex/dec...:
For now, we do not have a menu or button to change the format.
However, just like with the “preRunCommand” attribute, it is possible to change it during the debug session.

In the Debug Console, to switch back to decimal, for example:
 

Be careful: you must include the ‘>’ character, even if it already appears in the debug console field.
Note: we know that this is not ideal. Improving this point is also planned.

KR,
/Flo

To give better visibility on the answered topics, please click on Accept as Solution on the reply which solved your issue or answered your question.
VisquesAuthor
Associate III
Jul 15, 2026 4:55 PM UTC

Thanks for your answer ​@Florent V, and for the great extension you guys are developing.