ANTS Memory Profiler 10

Suggestions for using filters

Filters cannot identify memory problems themselves, but they can help by focusing your investigation. The following notes suggest filters that can be useful in some conditions.

Filters that can help find a memory leak

The following filters can be useful in finding a memory leak:

The 'Disposed objects which are still in memory' and 'Kept in memory only by event handlers' filters are not available when profiling a .NET 1.1 application.

Filters that can help focus on a specific part of your application

The following filters can be particularly useful when you want to focus on a specific part of an application, or exclude a specific part of an application:

  • Objects on large object / Gen 0 / Gen 1 / Gen 2 heap
    Use this filter to understand how objects are allocated in memory. Looking at objects on the Gen 2 heap may be especially helpful, because these are the longest-surviving small objects.
    You can also use this filter to investigate objects on the large object heap, which is useful if you have large object heap fragmentation.
  • Kept in memory exclusively by objects from namespace
    Use this filter to look for your classes, excluding third-party and framework code. You should not normally do this when first looking for the source of a memory leak, because this filter may hide the symptoms of a leak originating in your code.
  • Never referenced by an instance of class/interface
    Use this filter if you think that all classes should be referenced by a particular class or interface. If a class is still shown, it is being kept in memory for a different reason.

The 'Objects on large object / Gen 0 / Gen 1 / Gen 2 heap' filters are not available when profiling a .NET 1.1 application.

See the worked example, which demonstrates using filters in your memory profiling workflow.


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