Debugger does not show text representation for variables of type 'const gchar*' (or other char typedefs)

Qt Creator nicely shows a text representation for variable values of type const char* (and similar) in its locals and expressions view. However, this is not the case for variables of type const gchar* (where gchar is a typedef for char in GLib) or other typedefs for various character types.

Sample program:

// compile:
// g++ -g -O0 $(pkg-config --cflags glib-2.0) gchar_sample.cxx
#include <iostream>
#include <glib-2.0/glib.h>

typedef char mychar;

int main() {

const char *str = "hello";
const gchar *gstr = str;
const mychar *mystr = str;

std::cout << str << ", " << gstr << ", " << mystr << std::endl;

return 0;

};

Steps to reproduce:

1. set up a project in Qt Creator using above sample program
2. set breakpoint at the line "return 0"
3. start debugging
4. check value displayed for the local variables

Result:

• str is shown as "hello" (OK)
• For gstr, it only shows
  • the pointer's address if option "Dereference pointers automatically" is disabled)
  • type gchar and value "h" if option "Dereference pointers automatically" is enabled
• same for mystr

Expected result:

The text representation "hello" should be used for all three local variables, just like e.g. command line GDB also does it:

Breakpoint 1, main () at gchar_sample.cxx:19
19
(gdb) p str
$1 = 0x555555556005 "hello"
(gdb) p gstr
$2 = (const gchar *) 0x555555556005 "hello"
(gdb) p mystr
$3 = (const mychar *) 0x555555556005 "hello"
 

 Notes:

I plan to submit a patch to Gerrit that improves this.