Object References table

The Object References table displays references to or from a set of objects. This is useful to study data structures, to find memory leaks, and to find unexpected references.

To display information on this table, you first need to run Collect Object References on the active process (right click on the active process, then select Collect Object References).

Display

The Show Reference To/By column displays a tree. The first level of the tree shows the classes loaded by the application. At this level, the Size column shows the active size for the corresponding classes. The content of the display differs depending on whether Show Reference To or Show Reference By is chosen.

Show Reference To

Displays a tree of objects referenced by the selected class objects. As you go deeper in the tree, each successive level shows the objects referenced by the previous ones.

Here is an example of the table with Show Reference To selected:

The Package column shows the package that contains the class of the analyzed object. If the view is opened at the node or monitor level and the node or monitor contains more then one process, the ID of the process owning the package is appended to the package name.
The Size column shows cumulative size. In the example, the cumulative size of the two PerformanceExample objects is 616 bytes.
The Number of References column shows the number of objects referenced by the current selection. As you expand the tree, you see the same number of objects identified to be referenced by the current selection. In the example, one or more Panel objects reference 2 PerformanceExample objects. Expanding the tree one level you see that the PerformanceExample objects reference 22 other objects.

Show Reference By

Displays a tree of objects referencing the selected class objects. As you go deeper in the tree, each successive level show the objects referencing the previous ones.

Here is an example of the table with Show Reference By selected:

The Package column shows the package that contains the class of the analyzed object. If the view is opened at the node or monitor level and the node or monitor contains more then one process, the ID of the process owning the package is appended to the package name.
The Size column shows cumulative size. The Panel objects keep two references to the PerformanceExample objects and their cumulate size is 440 bytes.
The Number of References columns shows the number of objects referencing the current selection. As you expand the tree, you see the same number of objects identified to be referencing the current selection. In the example, one or more PerformanceExample objects are referenced by 10 other objects.
Expand the tree one level and you see the objects referencing the PerformanceExample. One Finalizer object references a PerformanceExample object and no object is referencing Finalizer object. You also see that PerformanceExample is referenced by one or more Panel objects. The Panel objects are referenced by one object; expand the tree one level and you see what objects are referencing them.

Controls

The Object References Table controls consist of:

Toolbar controls
Filtering
Table controls
Pop up control

Toolbar controls

From the toolbar you can do the following:

Open Source: Opens the source of a selected item.
Menu: Select either Show Reference By or Show Reference To.

Filtering

The table provides filtering based on the name of the reference. Use the Filter field to specify a string pattern.

Table controls

Click the title of a column to sort it. Click the title of the column again to sort it in reverse order. The title of the column is prefixed with < if the column is sorted in ascending order or with > if it is sorted in descending order.

Type a letter and the table repositions itself to the next object starting with that letter.

Pop up control

Pop up menu on Object References Table containing selections described below

The pop up provides the following choices:

Refresh Views: To update all Profiling and Logging views.
Choose Columns: To select which columns should be hidden and visible. These are the choices:

Use Up and Down to rearrange the position of the columns: the topmost column will appear leftmost in the table.

Related concepts
Overview of the Profiling Tool
Profiling resources