c# - VS 2015 SSIS Script Tasks cannot be debugged

Question

Just spent hours pulling my hair trying to work out why my ssis Script Component was not breaking into debugger on hitting a breakpoint. I searched the web and fund 64 bit setting (Project -> Properies -> Debugging) to be turned off but it didn't help me.

It turns out that if I use string interpolation ( $"{someVar}" ) in my code then debugger does not start. Once I replaced it with the old string.Format("{0}...", param1, ...) method my breakpoints got hit and I could step through the code.

The code works either way and it is just the debugger that is affected by the newer syntax.

I hope this helps someone.

Answer 1

Indeed, limiting C# Script Tasks to language features of C# 4.0 brings the Debugger back to life. In my case, adding a single null-coalescing operator caused the debugger issue using Visual Studio 2015 (VSTA) on SQL Server/SSIS 2016.

To restrict the Script to C# 4.0 we can enforce a specific Language Level in the Build settings of the Task:

• Open the Script Task in question, click the "Edit Script..." button to open Visual Studio (VSTA).
• In the Solution Explorer right-click the Project node and select Properties
• In the Project window, go the Build tab, scroll down and click the Advanced.. button.
• In the Advanced Build Settings window change the Langauge Version from "default" to "C# 4.0".
• Clean/Rebuild the Script Task, fix compilation errors.
• Finally, exit VSTA, rebuild the project

and then you should be able to debug the C# Script Task again.