QTP - 18 What is Object Spy and whats its use ?

Object spy is one of the features given by QTP which is used to determine the run & test time object properties & methods of the application under test.We can directly access object spy from the toolbar or from the Object Repository Dialog Box. It is very useful during Descriptive Programming when we want to define some unique properties in our program to identify any object.It also gives the syntax for a selected method.It gives the complete hierarchy of the object you have selected.

From the 11.0 version of QTP/UFT , HP has added few more functionality to the object spy . Three more features has been added to object spy option :

Highlight an object in our application: When we select a test object in the Object Spy Object hierarchy tree, we can then select to highlight the object in our application that corresponds to that test object. This is used in the case when there are more than one objects with the same name.

Add an object to a repository: Now object Spy provides an option of adding objects to repository directly.

Copy/paste object properties: This is an important feature added by HP in this version. Now  we can copy the identification properties and values of a selected test object in the Object Spy and paste the details into any document. The details are formatted in programmatic description syntax. This option is especially useful if we want to compare the properties and values of two objects in our application or when creating programmatic descriptions.