Shiny is a free C++ profiler. It works under (amongst other) G++. I have not got it to work under C++ Builder.

Using Shiny with C++ Builder

But you can use the preprocessor to remove the Shiny macro's:


#ifndef _WIN32

  //If the program is not compiled under C++ Builder

  // just #include the Shiny header

  #include "..\..\Shiny\Shiny.h"

#else

  //If the program is compiled under C++ Builder

  // remove all macro's.

  #define PROFILE_FUNC() ((void)0)

  #define PROFILER_UPDATE() ((void)0)

  #define PROFILER_OUTPUT(x) ((void)0)

#endif

Example

Suppose we want to compare the runtime speed of the STL std::sort and bubble sort.


#include <algorithm>

#include <iostream>

#include <iterator>

#include <vector>

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------

//From http://www.richelbilderbeek.nl/CppBubbleSort.htm

template <class T>

void BubbleSort(std::vector<T>& v)

{

  //Let the profiler include this function in its measurements

  PROFILE_FUNC();



  const int size = static_cast<int>(v.size());



  for(int i=0; i!=size-1; ++i)

  {

    for(int j=0; j!=size-i-1; ++j)

    {

      if(v[j] > v[j+1])

      {

        std::swap(v[j],v[j+1]);

      }

    }

  }

}

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------

//From http://www.richelbilderbeek.nl/CppQuickSort.htm

template <class T>

void QuickSort(std::vector<T>& v)

{

  //Let the profiler include this function in its measurements

  PROFILE_FUNC();



  std::sort(v.begin(),v.end());

}

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------

const std::vector<int> CreateVector(const int sz)

{

  //Let the profiler include this function in its measurements

  PROFILE_FUNC();



  std::vector<int> v(100);

  std::generate(v.begin(),v.end(),std::rand);

  return v;

}

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------

int main()

{

  const int n_runs = 10000;

  const int max_int = std::numeric_limits<int>::max();



  for (int i=0; i!=n_runs; ++i)

  {

    //Update the profiler

    PROFILER_UPDATE();

    //Create a std::vector of random integers

    const std::vector<int> v = CreateVector(max_int);

    //Bubble-sort a copy of this std::vector

    std::vector<int> v_bubble = v;

    BubbleSort(v_bubble);

    //Quicksort a copy of this std::vector

    std::vector<int> v_quick = v;

    QuickSort(v_quick);

  }

  //Write the profiler measurements to file

  PROFILER_OUTPUT("profiler.rtf");

}

Compile the program with for example:


g++ -o Main UnitMain.cpp ../../Shiny/ShinyManager.cpp ../../Shiny/ShinyNode.cpp ../../Shiny/ShinyNodePool.cpp ../../Shiny/ShinyTools.cpp ../../Shiny/ShinyOutput.cpp

Then run the program and the following text file (called profiler.rtf) is created:


flat profile hits  self   time total time

<root>       0.0    31 us   3% 987 us 103%

CreateVector 1.0   274 ns   0% 274 ns   0%

BubbleSort   1.0   954 us 100% 954 us 100%

QuickSort    1.0     1 us   0%   1 us   0%



call tree    hits  self    time total time

<root>       0.0     31 us   3% 987 us 103%

CreateVector 1.0    274 ns   0% 274 ns   0%

BubbleSort   1.0    954 us 100% 954 us 100%

QuickSort    1.0      1 us   0%   1 us   0%

The program has spent 100% of 103% in the function BubbleSort and only less then 0.5% in QuickSort. You have now measured that in this case QuickSort is faster. This was just as expected for large std::vector sizes.

External links

Go back to Richel Bilderbeek's C++ page.

Go back to Richel Bilderbeek's homepage.

(C++) Shiny

Using Shiny with C++ Builder

Example

External links