Object Lifetime View
Applies to: 
Visual Studio 
Visual Studio for Mac
Note
This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here
The Object Lifetime view is available when Also collect .NET object lifetime data is checked on the Performance Session property pages.
The garbage collector of the .NET Framework manages the allocation and release of memory for your application. To optimize the performance of the garbage collector, the managed heap is divided into three generations: 0, 1, and 2. The garbage collector of the runtime stores new objects in generation 0. Objects that survive collections are promoted and stored in generations 1 and 2.
The garbage collector reclaims memory by deallocating a whole generation of objects. For objects that were created by the profiled application, the Object Lifetime view displays the number and size of the objects and the generation in which they are reclaimed.
General
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Class Name | The class name of the allocated type. |
| Process ID | The process ID of the profiling run. |
| Process Name | The name of the process. |
| Module Name | The name of the module that contains the function. |
| Module Path | The path of the module that contains the function. |
Instance data
Instance data indicates the number of objects of the type that were created in the profiling run, and the generation in which the objects were deallocated by the garbage collector.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Instances | The number of allocations of objects of this type. |
| Total Instances % | The percentage of the total number of allocations that were made in the profiling run. |
| Gen 0 Instances Collected | The number of instances of the type that were deallocated in generation 0 of the garbage collection algorithm. |
| Gen 1 Instances Collected | The number of instances of the type that were deallocated in generation 1 of the garbage collection algorithm. |
| Gen 2 Instances Collected | The number of instances of the type that were deallocated in generation 2 of the garbage collection algorithm. |
| Instances Alive At End | The number of instances of the type that were not deallocated until the end of the profiling run. |
Size (byte) data
Size (byte) data indicates the size of objects of the type that were created in the profiling run, and the amount of memory that was reclaimed in each generation in which the objects were deallocated.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Total Bytes Allocated | The total number of bytes for all instances of the type. |
| Total Bytes % | The percentage of the total number of allocated bytes in the profiling run that were allocated for the instances of this type. |
| Gen 0 Bytes Collected | The size of the instances of the type that were deallocated in generation 0 of the garbage collection algorithm. |
| Gen 1 Bytes Collected | The size of the instances of the type that were deallocated in generation 1 of the garbage collection algorithm. |
| Gen 2 Bytes Collected | The size of the instances of the type that were deallocated in generation 2 of the garbage collection algorithm. |
Large object heap data
The .NET memory allocator manages very large objects in a location that is separate from the standard managed heap. Large object heap data indicates the number and size of objects of the type that were managed in this location.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Large Object Heap Instances Collected | The number of instances of this type that were located in the large object heap and that were collected in the profiling run. |
| Large Object Heap Bytes Collected | The size, in bytes, of the instances of this type that were located in the large object heap and that were collected in the profiling run. |