Object References table*

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

 

Display

The Show Reference 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.  As you go deeper in the tree, each successive level shows the objects referencing the previous ones.

Here is an example of the table:

• 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 the active (total-collected) size of the object in bytes in the first level of the tree. In subsequent levels, if instance information is not displayed, the size represents the cumulative size. If instance information is displayed, the size represents the average instance size.

• 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.  .

Note: The profiling views are described here using Java. Profiling data from a different application context might change the terms and syntax used in the views. For more information, see Understanding application contexts in profiling views.

Controls

Toolbar controls

Icon	Definition
	Opens the source of a selected item.
	Filter objects based on time, size, total instances, or other criteria.
	Export records to available report formats. The New Report dialog allows you to select the report type and open the document using the default system editor.
	Select either Show Reference By or Show Reference To, Select the columns to be displayed, or Sort by column. Select the Display Application Context option to display profiling data based on a programming language or data collection context. For more information, see Understanding application contexts in profiling views.

Pop-up menu controls

Icon	Definition
	Opens the source of a selected item.
	Select the columns to be displayed.
	Update all profiling and logging views.
	Sort by column.
	Filter out the selected object.

Filtering

The view provides filtering based on the name of the package, class, or method. You can also filter on time or heap size and on particular attributes of the package, class, method, or object instance.

Note: The filtering feature of the Object References view can only filter at the first level of the object tree.

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.

*Profiling Java 1.4 and lower java virtual machine based applications

Related concepts
Overview of the Profiling Tool
Profiling resources

Related tasks
Profiling an application
Identifying memory leaks 
Collecting object references

(C) Copyright IBM Corporation 2000, 2008. All Rights Reserved.