Memory taken by an object

[JezB]

How do I evaluate, in c#, the amount of memory taken up by any given object
?

 

[Jan Bannister (jancsharp.blogspot.com)]

Hi JezB,

Binary Serialize the object to disk.

Hope that helps,
Jan

 

[Tasos Vogiatzoglou]

int size = System.Runtime.InterpoServices.Marshal.SizeOf(object);

 

[Miha Markic [MVP C#]]

Hi Jan,

Just a note that this way you'll get an estimate and not an exact amount
(due to memory alignment and other context not serialized).
Perhaps the best way is to check it with a memory profiler..

 

[Jon Skeet]

How do I evaluate, in c#, the amount of memory taken up by any

given object?

Neither binary serialization nor marshalling will actually tell you
that information, and there's no way to determine it accurately, in a
guaranteed way.

However, each object has an 8 byte "overhead" plus the space taken for
its member fieds. Each reference is 4 bytes (on a 32 bit CLI), each
Int32 takes 4 bytes, etc. Where it becomes tricky is if you have
byte/short members - depending on attributes, these members may be
"packed" or not.

Don't forget though that two objects could both refer to the same third
object - you'd have to make sure you don't count that third object
twice if you're trying to sum the object sizes...

Jon

 

[Jan Bannister (jancsharp.blogspot.com)]

Thanks Miha,

Thats handy to know.

Jan

 

[Miha Markic [MVP C#]]

You're welcome :-D