Memory Usage for Objects

[Guest]

When I create an object in VB.NET I define both properties (data) and methods
(code). If I have 1,000 instances of this object stored in a Dictionary as
Dictionary(of int32, object) then I am obviously repeating the data of the
object 1,000 times.

If I understand correctly how objects are constructed, the methods (code) is
only stored once in memory and referenced by each instance of the object.
Thus it does not matter how many methods I have in an object when it comes to
efficiency and memory usage.

When is it a best practice to keep the object "lightweight" (with minimal
code)? Is this the case when we are remoting objects? Are there other reasons
to keep objects that are in collections "lightweight"?

 

[Guest]

When I create an object in VB.NET I define both properties (data) and methods
(code).

Properties are not data. The member variables of an object is the data.
Properties are just methods used to access the data.

If I have 1,000 instances of this object stored in a Dictionary as
Dictionary(of int32, object) then I am obviously repeating the data of the
object 1,000 times.

If I understand correctly how objects are constructed, the methods (code) is
only stored once in memory and referenced by each instance of the object.
Thus it does not matter how many methods I have in an object when it comes to
efficiency and memory usage.
Correct.

When is it a best practice to keep the object "lightweight" (with minimal
code)? Is this the case when we are remoting objects? Are there other reasons
to keep objects that are in collections "lightweight"?

Light weight refers to the data members of an object, not the methods.
As the number of methods doesn't impact the size of the object
instances, it's very rarely a concern at all. I don't know of any
sitation at all where it would matter.

 

[Linda Liu [MSFT]]

Hi Tom,

I agree with Anderson that the properties in a class are methods, not data.

What you described about how objects are constructed is correct.

In my opinion, even if each object has a lot of member variables, it
wouldn't cause the program to perform worse, because it won't add too much
of the object size.

If you have any concern, please feel free to let me know.


Sincerely,
Linda Liu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Guest]

Thank you for your fast response.

Yes, I did mean member variables and not properties.