Group by Instances

The Group by Instances view shows what instances make up the object set. Use this view as a means to select a specific instance for more detailed analysis.

The list of instances consists of the following columns:

Name	Description
Type	Type name.
Address	Virtual memory address of the instance.
Bytes	The size of the instance in bytes.
Retained bytes	The overall size in bytes of all objects exclusively retained by the instance.

Example

Filtering Objects

You can filter out objects that are of no interest for your analysis.

To narrow the list

Start typing the desired type name in the Filter field.
dotMemory will exclude all instances that don't match the pattern.

You can make your search more efficient by using the following tips:

Use CamelHumps. E.g. fo will return objects of both System.Drawing.Font and MS.Utility.FrugalObjectList types.
Use special symbols, like wildcards and others. The full list is shown in the table below.

Symbol	Description	Example
`*`	Wildcard	`*` All objects in the set
		`sys.*.data` All types and namespaces that match the pattern. E.g. `System.Data`, `System.Windows.Controls.Datagrid`, and `System.Windows.Data.Binding`.
		`sys.*.data.` Only namespaces that match the pattern. E.g. `System.Windows.Data.Binding` but not `System.Windows.Controls.Datagrid`.
Arrays
[]	Leave only arrays	`str[]` Arrays, containing `str` in their type or namespace. E.g. `String[]`.
`[,` `[,,` `...` or `[,]` `[,,]` `...`	Leave only arrays of the specified or higher (if brackets are not closed) dimension	`str[,,` Arrays with the dimension 3 and higher containing `str` in their type or namespace. E.g. `String[,,]` and `String[,,,]`.
`[,` `[,,` `...` or `[,]` `[,,]` `...`		`str[,,]` Three-dimensional arrays containing `str` in their type or namespace. E.g. `String[,,]`.
`!a`	Exclude arrays from the result	`!a str` Objects (excluding arrays) containing `str` in their type or namespace. E.g. `String` but not `String[]`.
Ranked arrays
`[N..` `[N..]` `[N..M]` `[N..M, X..Y]` `...` where `N`, `M`, `X`, `Y` are integers	Leave only arrays with the specified number of elements	`byte[10..100]` Arrays with `Byte` in their type or namespace with 10 - 100 number of elements. E.g. `Byte[98]`.
		`byte[10..100, 25..` Two- (or more) dimensional arrays with `Byte` in their type or namespace with 10 - 100 number of elements in the first dimension and more than 25 elements in the second. E.g. `Byte[98, 30, 1000]` but not `Byte[98]`.
		If range is not specified, the filter is treated as a text filter. For example, `byte[1` will match `Byte[195]` and `Byte[1, 50]`. `byte[1*5]` will match `Byte[13853]`.
Generic type arguments
`<`	Leave only types with generic type arguments	`str<` Only objects containing `str` in their type or namespace and having generic type arguments. E.g. `FileStreamStorage<Char>` but not `List<String>`.
`<`	Leave only types with generic type arguments	`<str` Only objects containing `str` in their generic type arguments. E.g. `List<String>` but not `FileStreamStorage<Char>`.
`<,` `<,,` `...` or `<,>` `<,,>` `...`	Leave only objects with the specified number of generic type arguments	`fun<,,>` Objects containing `fun` in their type or namespace and having three generic type arguments. E.g. `Func<String, Object, Object>`.
`<,` `<,,` `...` or `<,>` `<,,>` `...`		`fun<str,,task` Objects containing `fun` in their type or namespace and having three or generic type arguments that match the pattern. E.g. `Func<Stream, IAsyncResult, TaskResult, EventArgs>`.
`!g`	Exclude generic type arguments from the search scope	`!g str` Objects (that do not have generic type arguments) containing `str` in their type or namespace. E.g. `String` but not `List<String>`.

Selecting objects for further analysis

In the Group by Instances view, you can select the following subjects for further analysis:

An instance;
Objects exclusively retained (dominated) by the whole object set.

To select a particular instance

Do one of the following:
- Double-click the instance in the list.
- Right-click the instance and choose Open this instance.
After this, the Instance from set subject is added to the Analysis Path and you can use specific instance views to analyze the instance in more details.

To select the objects that are exclusively retained by the analyzed objects set

Click the Open objects retained by this set button.
After this, the Exclusively retained objects subject will be added to the Analysis Path and the list of desired objects will be displayed in the Group by Types view.

Last modified: 08 March 2021