Determine how much memory a class uses?

Question

I am trying to find a way to determine at run-time how much memory a given class is using in .NET. Using Marshal.SizeOf() is out, as it only works on value types. Is there a way to check exactly how much memory a class uses?

Answer 1

I've only recently started looking into this type of thing, but i have found that memory profilers can give quite detailed information regarding instances of objects within your application.

Here are a couple that are worth trying:

• ANTS Profiler
• .NET Memory Profiler

Answer 2

I agree that a memory profiler is the easiest way to get the information you are looking for. In addition to the two previously mentioned, I recommend JetBrains dotTrace, which is both a performance profiler and a memory profiler.

If you want to do it yourself, and are willing to get pretty deep into the guts of the CLR, you can use the .NET Profiling API, which is an unmanaged API that (as Microsoft says): "enables a profiler to monitor a program's execution by the common language runtime (CLR)." It's not exactly intended for casual use, but it does have an enormous amount of functionality.

Answer 3

just link to related SO question:

• sizeof() equivalent for reference types?