netbeans debugging best practice

Question

[Edit: Let me rephrase] Say an object o that occurs in debugging has properties a and b, with values null and Hello. Is it possible to automatically generate the following code for the next debugging session:

if(o.a == null && o.b == "Hello") {
}

When debugging a program that has to cope with complex user inputs, such as a parser for a programming language, I often want to start debugging from a certain point in the process of parsing. I have implemented a simple way of starting when an instruction from a specific line of input code is handled.
However, lines may contain very complex instructions resulting in deep recursions in the code, such that after starting the debugging I have to step farther into the program manually. When this happens in a function func(obj a), I usually write some ugly code like this:

public void func(obj a) {
  if(a instanceof someClass && ((someClass)a).hasSomeProperty() && ((someClass)a).getIdentifier().equals("myID")) {
  // set a breakpoint here
  }
  // other code 
}

So basically I try to identify the interesting situation by identifying an object that was passed to a function. I know these values because I usually have a breakpoint on an exception that is thrown in the other code. So my question is this: instead of writing all this ugly code to generate a proper breakpoint, is there a way to configure a conditional breakpoint based on some value that a variable has in a former debugging session? Basically say: halt here when the object is exactly like this one here?

Answer 1

You might do the following: write a static utility method ("writer") that serializes and writes the object you want to compare with a future debugging session; and another method ("reader") which receives an Object and compares it with the serialized version, returning true when both are equal.
After that, you can define one or more conditional breakpoints which call up the "writer" method and don't stop.
Additionally, you'd define another conditional breakpoint calling the "reader" method, which halts the thread as usual but only when the condition is met.

Answer 2

Netbeans offers the conditional breakpoint feature: after you set a breakpoint on a line you right click on it, choose Breakpoint-Properties, select the Condition checkbox and insert Java code to express a condition that must be true to break program execution.

Answer 3

add the breakpoint, right click it, go to breakpoint -> properties at the breakpoint properties window you will see a condition box, and you add your if