I want to transfer some records with the following structure between two Windows PC computer using COM/DCOM. I prefer to transfer an array, say 100 members of TARec, at a time, not each record individually. Currently I am doing this using IStrings. I am looking to improve it using the raw records, to save the time to encode/decode the strings at both ends. Please share your experience.
type
TARec = record
A : TDateTime;
B : WORD;
C : Boolean;
D : Double;
end;
All the record's field type are OLE compatible. Many thanks in advance.
As Rudy suggests in the comments, if your data contains simple value types then a variant byte array can be a very efficient approach and quite simple to implement.
Since you have stated that your data already resides in an array, the basic approach would be:
Create a byte array of the required size to hold all your record data (use VarArrayCreate with type varByte)
Lock the array to obtain a pointer that is safe to use to reference the array contents in memory (VarArrayLock will lock and return a pointer to the array data)
Use CopyMemory to directly copy the data from your array of records to the byte array memory.
Unlock the variant array (VarArrayUnlock) and pass it through your COM/DCOM interface
On the other ('receiving') side you simply reverse the process:
Declare an array of records of the required size
Lock the variant byte array to obtain a pointer to the memory holding the bytes
Copy the byte array data into your record array
Unlock the byte array
This exact approach is something I have used very successfully in a very demanding COM/DCOM scenario (w.r.t efficiency/performance) in the past.
Things to be careful of:
If your data ever changes to include more complex types such as strings or dynamic arrays then additional work will be required to correctly transport these through a byte array.
If your data structure ever changes then the code on both sides of the interface will need to be updated accordingly. One way to protect against this is to incorporate some mechanism for the data to be identified as valid or not by the receiver. This could include a "version number" for example and/or a value (in a 'header' as part of the byte array, in addition to the array data, or passed as a separate parameter entirely - precise details don't really matter). If the receiver finds a version number or size that it is not expecting then it can report this gracefully rather than naively processing the data incorrectly and (most likely) crashing or throwing exceptions as a result.
Alignment/packing issues. Even with the same declaration for the record type, if code is compiled with different alignment settings then the size required for each record in memory could change (which is why a "version number" for the data structure format might not be reliable on its own). One way to avoid this would be to declare the record as packed, though this comes at the cost of a slight reduction in efficiency (and still relies on both sides of the interface agreeing that the data structure is packed).
There are just things to bear in mind however, not prescriptive. Just how complex/robust your implementation needs to be will be determined by your specific case.
I have Insufficient memory error with TClientDataset with TStringField fields. I need to use length of strings from 0 to 8000 - but don't know what length will be until I fill the TClientDataset.
So, can TStringField be created with dynamic Size?
P.S. The initial task is to copy TDBGrid to TClientDataset.
What kind of data are you storing in those fields to need up to 8000 characters?
Imagine you do partial search on those fields using wildcards. I bet such search would take ages and could posibly even crash your database server.
Besides not all databases tables support 8192 character sized StringFields.
http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/Libraries/XE6/en/Data.DB.TStringField
TStringField encapsulates the fundamental behavior common to fields
that contain string data. A value of a string field is physically
stored as a sequence of up to 8192 characters. However, some table
types may only support string fields of smaller dimensions.
So why don't you use TMemoFields instead since they alow to have dynamical size of their text?
http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/Libraries/XE6/en/Data.DB.TMemoField
I have used the following solution. First, calculate maximum Sizes based on Length(aDBGrid.Columns[i].Field.DisplayText). Then create TStringFields with the calculated Sizes.
P.S. The initial task is to copy TDBGrid to TClientDataset.
I made a function that copies the Data from A TClientDataSet to B.
In production, the code will dynamically fill a TClientDataSet, like the following:
procedure LoadClientDataSet(const StringSql: String; ParamsAsArray: array of Variant; CdsToLoad: TClientDataSet);
begin
//There is a shared TClientDataSet that retrieves
//all data from a TRemoteDataModule in here.
//the following variables (and code) are here only to demonstration of the algorithm;
GlobalMainThreadVariable.SharedClientDataSet.CommandText := StringSql;
//Handle Parameters
GlobalMainThreadVariable.SharedClientDataSet.Open;
CdsToLoad.Data:= GlobalMainThreadVariable.SharedClientDataSet.Data;
GlobalMainThreadVariable.SharedClientDataSet.Close;
end;
That said:
It is safe to do so? (By safe I mean, what kind of exceptions should I expect and how to deal with them?)
How do I release ".Data's" memory?
The data storage residing behind the Data property is reference counted. Therefore you don't have to bother releasing it.
If you want to dive deeper into the intrinsics of TClientDataSet I recommend reading the really excellent book from Cary Jensen: Delphi in Depth: ClientDataSets
By assigning the Data property like you did duplicates the records. You have now two different isntances of TClientDataset with two different set of records with precisely the same structure, same row count and same field values.
It´s safe to do that if the receiving TClientDataset does not have any field structure previously defined or the existing structure is compatible with the Data being assigned. However, if we are talking about a huge number of records, the assignment may take long time and, in an extreme circumstance, it could exaust the computer´s memory (it all the depends on the computer´s configuration).
In order to release the Data, just close the dataset.
If you prefer to have two instances of TClientDataset but one single instance of the records, my suggestion is to use the TClientDataset.CloneCursor method, that instead of copying the Data, just assign a reference to it in a different dataset. In this case it´s the very same Data shared between two different datasets.
We have a system that creates reports out of our data. And we can deal with a lot of data. The idea of over 150,000 rows is not out of the question.
Unfortunately, our experience with TClientDataSet is its limitations, because it often results in an 'insufficient memory for this operation' error, when the data gets too big.
So the question is this: Does there exist a generally available implementation of TDataSet that can handle a large amount of data (such as streaming directly to a file and not keeping the entire dataset in memory)?
I am willing to implement such a class myself. But as far as I understand TClientDataSet, it needs to be able to contain the data itself before it can save it to a file/stream. In addition, loading the data again should also be possible as a stream rather than loading in an entire TClientDataSet object, because then we wouldn't have solved the issue.
You can use either FireBird or Interbase in embedded mode.
Is there really any need to cache all the data on the client before reporting? If not, maybe rethink how you're querying and processing data to generate these reports and see if there's a way that involves less client-side data (which comes with a bonus of less data transmitted over the network).
If you've been down that road before and you really do need all this data client side, then you could look at custom data structures. A TList<T> of records (even if you need to build your own indexes) takes a lot less memory than a TClientDataSet does.
KBMMemTable is a nice alternative to TClientDataset
http://www.components4programmers.com/products/kbmmemtable/
We are using it for years and it is very useful and fast.
Wanted to underline that the capacities of the TClientDataset could be something bigger.
Test on the limits of TClientDataset - appending xxx,xxx records, putting the single record in whole (repeated) to create an idea on the size.
// Begin Load Record to TCLientDataset for Reverse (on Reverse) Processing
dxMemData1.Append;
dxMemData1['NT_Rec_No'] := 1000;
dxMemData1['NT_User'] := 'DEV\Administrator';
dxMemData1['NT_Type'] := 'Information';
dxMemData1['Ora_Timestamp'] := '20170706033859.000';
dxMemData1['Ora_Host'] := 'DEV0001';
dxMemData1['Ora_SID'] := 'Oracle.orcl';
dxMemData1['Ora_Event_Id'] := '34';
dxMemData1['NT_Message'] := Memo1.Text;
dxMemData1.Post;
// End Load Record to TCLientDataset for Reverse (on Reverse) Processing
String on the memo1 is a of 100 characters - ansi
did several tests and managed to keep going to something from 600,000 to 900,000 records without crashing.
Difference can be made by making the text on the memo bigger - this did decrease the max number before crash - which means it is not a matter of exact max. record number - but of size consumed - my guess.
Tested the same with TdxMemData (devexpress), this time I could reach almost the double of records
I'm working on a simulation program.
One of the first things the program does is read in a huge file (28 mb, about 79'000 lines,), parse each line (about 150 fields), create a class for the object, and add it to a TStringList.
It also reads in another file, which adds more objects during the run. At the end, it ends up being about 85'000 objects.
I was working with Delphi 2007, and the program used a lot of memory, but it ran OK. I upgraded to Delphi XE, and migrated the program over and now it's using a LOT more memory, and it ends up running out of memory half way through the run.
So in Delphi 2007, it would end up using 1.4 gigs after reading in the initial file, which is obviously a huge amount, but in XE, it ends up using almost 1.8 gigs, which is really huge and leads to running out and getting the error
So my question is
Why is it using so much memory?
Why is it using so much more memory in XE than 2007?
What can I do about this? I can't change how big or long the file is, and I do need to create an object for each line and to store it somewhere
Thanks
Just one idea which may save memory.
You could let the data stay on the original files, then just point to them from in-memory structures.
For instance, it's what we do for browsing big log files almost instantly: we memory-map the log file content, then we parse it quick to create indexes of useful information in memory, then we read the content dynamically. No string is created during the reading. Only pointers to each line beginning, with dynamic arrays containing the needed indexes. Calling TStringList.LoadFromFile would be definitively much slower and memory consuming.
The code is here - see the TSynLogFile class. The trick is to read the file only once, and make all indexes on the fly.
For instance, here is how we retrieve a line of text from the UTF-8 file content:
function TMemoryMapText.GetString(aIndex: integer): string;
begin
if (self=nil) or (cardinal(aIndex)>=cardinal(fCount)) then
result := '' else
result := UTF8DecodeToString(fLines[aIndex],GetLineSize(fLines[aIndex],fMapEnd));
end;
We use the exact same trick to parse JSON content. Using such a mixed approach is used by the fastest XML access libraries.
To handle your high-level data, and query them fast, you may try to use dynamic arrays of records, and our optimized TDynArray and TDynArrayHashed wrappers (in the same unit). Arrays of records will be less memory consuming, will be faster to search in because the data won't be fragemented (even faster if you use ordered indexes or hashes), and you'll be able to have high-level access to the content (you can define custom functions to retrieve the data from the memory mapped file, for instance). Dynamic arrays won't fit fast deletion of items (or you'll have to use lookup tables) - but you wrote you are not deleting much data, so it won't be a problem in your case.
So you won't have any duplicated structure any more, only logic in RAM, and data on memory-mapped file(s) - I added a "s" here because the same logic could perfectly map to several source data files (you need some "merge" and "live refresh" AFAIK).
It's hard to say why your 28 MB file is expanding to 1.4 GB worth of objects when you parse it out into objects without seeing the code and the class declarations. Also, you say you're storing it in a TStringList instead of a TList or TObjecList. This sounds like you're using it as some sort of string->object key/value mapping. If so, you might want to look at the TDictionary class in the Generics.Collections unit in XE.
As for why you're using more memory in XE, it's because the string type changed from an ANSI string to a UTF-16 string in Delphi 2009. If you don't need Unicode, you could use a TDictionary to save space.
Also, to save even more memory, there's another trick you could use if you don't need all 79,000 of the objects right away: lazy loading. The idea goes something like this:
Read the file into a TStringList. (This will use about as much memory as the file size. Maybe twice as much if it gets converted into Unicode strings.) Don't create any data objects.
When you need a specific data object, call a routine that checks the string list and looks up the string key for that object.
Check if that string has an object associated with it. If not, create the object from the string and associate it with the string in the TStringList.
Return the object associated with the string.
This will keep both your memory usage and your load time down, but it's only helpful if you don't need all (or a large percentage) of the objects immediately after loading.
In Delphi 2007 (and earlier), a string is an Ansi string, that is, every character occupies 1 byte of memory.
In Delphi 2009 (and later), a string is a Unicode string, that is, every character occupies 2 bytes of memory.
AFAIK, there is no way to make a Delphi 2009+ TStringList object use Ansi strings. Are you really using any of the features of the TStringList? If not, you could use an array of strings instead.
Then, naturally, you can choose between
type
TAnsiStringArray = array of AnsiString;
// or
TUnicodeStringArray = array of string; // In Delphi 2009+,
// string = UnicodeString
Reading though the comments, it sounds like you need to lift the data out of Delphi and into a database.
From there it is easy to match organ donors to receivers*)
SELECT pw.* FROM patients_waiting pw
INNER JOIN organs_available oa ON (pw.bloodtype = oa.bloodtype)
AND (pw.tissuetype = oa.tissuetype)
AND (pw.organ_needed = oa.organ_offered)
WHERE oa.id = '15484'
If you want to see the patients that might match against new organ-donor 15484.
In memory you only handle the few patients that match.
*) simplified beyond all recognition, but still.
In addition to Andreas' post:
Before Delphi 2009, a string header occupied 8 bytes. Starting with Delphi 2009, a string header takes 12 bytes. So every unique string uses 4 bytes more than before, + the fact that each character takes twice the memory.
Also, starting with Delphi 2010 I believe, TObject started using 8 bytes instead of 4. So for each single object created by delphi, delphi now uses 4 more bytes. Those 4 bytes were added to support the TMonitor class I believe.
If you're in desperate need to save memory, here's a little trick that could help if you have a lot of string value that repeats themselve.
var
uUniqueStrings : TStringList;
function ReduceStringMemory(const S : String) : string;
var idx : Integer;
begin
if not uUniqueStrings.Find(S, idx) then
idx := uUniqueStrings.Add(S);
Result := uUniqueStrings[idx]
end;
Note that this will help ONLY if you have a lot of string values that repeat themselves. For exemple, this code use 150mb less on my system.
var sl : TStringList;
I: Integer;
begin
sl := TStringList.Create;
try
for I := 0 to 5000000 do
sl.Add(ReduceStringMemory(StringOfChar('A',5)));every
finally
sl.Free;
end;
end;
I also read in a lot of strings in my program that can approach a couple of GB for large files.
Short of waiting for 64-bit XE2, here is one idea that might help you:
I found storing individual strings in a stringlist to be slow and wasteful in terms of memory. I ended up blocking the strings together. My input file has logical records, which may contain between 5 and 100 lines. So instead of storing each line in the stringlist, I store each record. Processing a record to find the line I need adds very little time to my processing, so this is possible for me.
If you don't have logical records, you might just want to pick a blocking size, and store every (say) 10 or 100 strings together as one string (with a delimiter separating them).
The other alternative, is to store them in a fast and efficient on-disk file. The one I'd recommend is the open source Synopse Big Table by Arnaud Bouchez.
May I suggest you try using the jedi class library (JCL) class TAnsiStringList, which is like TStringList fromDelphi 2007 in that it is made up of AnsiStrings.
Even then, as others have mentioned, XE will be using more memory than delphi 2007.
I really don't see the value of loading the full text of a giant flat file into a stringlist. Others have suggested a bigtable approach such as Arnaud Bouchez's one, or using SqLite, or something like that, and I agree with them.
I think you could also write a simple class that will load the entire file you have into memory, and provide a way to add line-by-line object links to a giant in-memory ansichar buffer.
Starting with Delphi 2009, not only strings but also every TObject has doubled in size. (See Why Has the Size of TObject Doubled In Delphi 2009?). But this would not explain this increase if there are only 85,000 objects. Only if these objects contain many nested objects, their size could be a relevant part of the memory usage.
Are there many duplicate strings in your list? Maybe trying to only store unique strings will help reducing the memory size. See my Question
about a string pool for a possible (but maybe too simple) answer.
Are you sure you don't suffer from a case of memory fragementation?
Be sure to use the latest FastMM (currently 4.97), then take a look at the UsageTrackerDemo demo that contains a memory map form showing the actual usage of the Delphi memory.
Finally take a look at VMMap that shows you how your process memory is used.