What are some resources I can use to learn profiling/optimizing?

Question

I just inherited a C# project that runs way to slow and will have to start optimizing it. What I wanted to do first is learn a little more about profiling/optimizing since I

Answer 1

You have already hit the nail on the head with the Profiler. All of them, at least all that I have used, follow the same basic methodology. You select the executable and then run the application.

What you do with the output is find the methods that take the most time.l This is not all, but you asked for a good way to learn how to optimize code, so the long running routines are a good place to start. ANTS, which you mentioned, will default to showing long running routines, as will most, if not all, others.

You can exclude the container methods, like Main(), unless you have a lot of code in there (unlikely).

In general, I find most waste in three areas:

1. Loops
2. Recursion
3. Network latency

Area #3, for the database, is generally easy to spot if you will also profile your database, as you will see the number of hits. The best way to reduce network latency, whether database or not (service calls, for example), is to communicate in messages rather than CRUD. Don't query each table, one at a time. Unfortunately, the solution often requires canning parts of many common data layers.

Recursion and loops are very similar problems. If you want bang for the buck, hit the inner loop first.

In .NET, you can also learn a lot about optimization by learning basic IL and examining the IL of your applications through tools like Reflector. A bit of a waste of time, if this is not the major portion of your job description, or something you are likely to want to spend your future career doing. Being a fireman pays well, but being a maintenance only coder can be very boring.

There are only a couple of books on optimizing and profiling .NET applications. The one that has optimzing in the title. The debugging book for .NET has some info on Profiling, but it is not very deep. It is a great book to read for optimization, however, as many issues that cause bugs will also show up in your optimization trips.