PerformanceCounter.CategoryName Property

Definition

Namespace:

System.Diagnostics

Assembly:

System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter.dll

Source:

PerformanceCounter.cs

Gets or sets the name of the performance counter category for this performance counter.

public:
 property System::String ^ CategoryName { System::String ^ get(); void set(System::String ^ value); };

public string CategoryName { get; set; }

member this.CategoryName : string with get, set

Public Property CategoryName As String

Property Value

String

The name of the performance counter category (performance object) with which this performance counter is associated.

Exceptions

ArgumentNullException

The CategoryName is null.

Examples

The following code example creates a default instance of the PerformanceCounter class. After the instance is created, the CategoryName, CounterName, and InstanceName property values are set, and the results of a call to the NextValue method are displayed.

PerformanceCounter^ PC = gcnew PerformanceCounter;
PC->CategoryName = "Process";
PC->CounterName = "Private Bytes";
PC->InstanceName = "Explorer";
MessageBox::Show( PC->NextValue().ToString() );

PerformanceCounter performanceCounter = new PerformanceCounter();
performanceCounter.CategoryName = "Process";
performanceCounter.CounterName = "Private Bytes";
performanceCounter.InstanceName = "Explorer";
MessageBox.Show(performanceCounter.NextValue().ToString());

Dim PC As New PerformanceCounter()
PC.CategoryName = "Process"
PC.CounterName = "Private Bytes"
PC.InstanceName = "Explorer"
MessageBox.Show(PC.NextValue().ToString())

Remarks

The CategoryName is displayed in the Performance Object field of Performance Counter Manager MMC snap in's Add Counter dialog box.

A performance counter monitors the behavior of a category, or performance object, on a computer. Categories include physical components (such as processors, disks, and memory) and system objects (such as processes and threads). System counters that are related to the same performance object are grouped into a category that indicates their common focus. When you create an instance of the PerformanceCounter class, you first indicate the category with which the component will interact, and then you choose a counter from that category.

For example, one Windows counter category is the Memory category. System counters within this category track memory data such as the number of bytes available and the number of bytes cached. If you wanted to work with the bytes cached in your application, you would create an instance of the PerformanceCounter component, connect it to the Memory category, and then pick the appropriate counter (in this case, Cached Bytes) from that category.

Although your system makes many more counter categories available, the categories that you will probably interact with most frequently are the Cache, Memory, Objects, PhysicalDisk, Process, Processor, Server, System, and Thread categories.

See also

• ProcessName