Place a breakpoint that you expect to hit by clicking in the gray area to the left of the desired source code line. A breakpoint will cause the code to pause execution when it is reached, allowing the user to view variable values before either resuming execution or stepping through execution one line at a time. You can additional breakpoints in this step if desired.

Make sure the program is set as the main program (it will be shown in bold in the left pane, see here for instructions), then click the Debug button in the toolbar.

Wait until the output window displays “Waiting for connection from debugger on serversocket://:2900". This is when the program will try to connect to the debugger.

Select the Debug menu from the top of the screen and click "Attach Debugger". Make sure the debug options match the ones shown in the picture, then click OK.

When the debugger completes the connection, Netbeans should automatically switch the left pane to the Debugging tab and display the running tasks. The bottom pane will switch to the Variables tab which displays variables currently in scope.

To reach your breakpoint, you may need to connect the Driver Station and enable the robot in the appropriate mode (autonomous, teleop, etc.). When the program reaches a breakpoint, the execution will be paused, the line of code will be highlighted in green, and the Variables tab will be populated with the variables currently in scope. To see all the variables, you may need to expand the tree.

After you have reached your breakpoint you can now control the flow of program execution using the buttons in the toolbar or their associated keyboard shortcuts:

1. Finish Debugger Section (Shift+F5) - Terminates the code and closes the debugging connection
2. Pause - Pauses program execution at the current point
3. Continue (F5) - Resumes program execution. The program will execute freely until it reaches a breakpoint or is paused.
4. Step Over (F8) - Steps through one source line, stepping over any method calls.
5. Step Over Expression (Shift+F8) - Steps through one method call in a source line. The value of the method call can then be viewed in the Variables window.
6. Step Into (F7) - Executes one method call in a source line. This will step down into the method.
7. Step Out (Ctrl+F7) - Executes one source-line. If the line is part of a a method, executes the rest of the method and returns to the caller.

You can also set or remove breakpoints while the program is running or stopped at a breakpoint.

Code can also be debugged by using System.out.print statements and receiving them with either the NetBeans console or with NetConsole (note: do not try to use both simultaneously, only use Netbeans OR the NetConsole at one time). For more information on using NetConsole see here.