Abstract:

Dig into the architecture and internals of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - with firsthand insights from the team that designed and developed it. Targeted for solution developers and system implementers, this guide focuses on programming and customization capabilities - including key architectural principles, the application model, framework, and tools. Topics include: Architecture and development environment, including MorphX Microsoft Visual Studio tools for Microsoft Dynamics AX X++ programming language Microsoft SQL Server reporting and analytics Models Core development concepts Extending and customizing Microsoft Dynamics AX Performance and security considerations Workflow Best practices Note: Readers should have working knowledge of SQL and OOP concepts to gain max benefit from this book.

I recently made an interesting discovery, that I want to share with you. I was investigating an recursive algorithm that scaled nicely; until it ran out of memory. For each level of the recursion a new class instance was created – this class contained multiple member variables of type Table (as in CustTable). I decided to measure the memory footprint of this construct, and I was much surprised by my findings.

Consider these 3 classes – that each stores the same amount of data, but in different ways:

/// <summary> 
/// Test class containing a table buffer and setting 20 fields 
/// </summary> 
class Class1 
{ 
    BOMCalcTrans bomCalcTrans; 
    public void new() 
    { 
        bomCalcTrans.ConsumptionVariable = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.ConsumptionConstant = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.CostPriceQty = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.CostPrice = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.CostPriceQtySecCur_RU = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.CostMarkup = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.NumOfSeries = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.SalesPriceQty = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.SalesMarkupQty = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.CostMarkupQty = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.CostMarkupQtySecCur_RU = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.CostPriceSecCur_RU = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.CostMarkupSecCur_RU = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.NetWeightQty = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.CostPriceUnit = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.SalesPrice = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.SalesMarkup = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.SalesPriceUnit = 50; 
        bomCalcTrans.SalesPriceFallBackVersion = 'abc'; 
        bomCalcTrans.CostPriceFallBackVersion = 'def'; 
    } 
} 
/// <summary> 
/// Test class containing a hashTable with 20 key/value pairs 
/// </summary> 
class Class2 
{ 
    System.Collections.Hashtable hashTable; 
    public void new() 
    { 
        hashTable = new System.Collections.Hashtable(); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,ConsumptionVariable), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,ConsumptionConstant), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,CostPriceQty), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,CostPrice), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,CostPriceQtySecCur_RU), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,CostMarkup), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,NumOfSeries), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,SalesPriceQty), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,SalesMarkupQty), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,CostMarkupQty), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,CostMarkupQtySecCur_RU), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,CostPriceSecCur_RU), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,CostMarkupSecCur_RU), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,NetWeightQty), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,CostPriceUnit), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,SalesPrice), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,SalesMarkup), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,SalesPriceUnit), 50); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,SalesPriceFallBackVersion), 'abc'); 
        hashTable.Add(fieldNum(bomCalcTrans,CostPriceFallBackVersion), 'def'); 
    } 
} 
/// <summary> 
/// Test class containing 20 member variables with values 
/// </summary> 
class Class3 
{ 
    InventQty bomCalcTransConsumptionVariable; 
    InventQty bomCalcTransConsumptionConstant; 
    CostPrice bomCalcTransCostPriceQty; 
    CostPrice bomCalcTransCostPrice; 
    CostPriceSecCur_RU bomCalcTransCostPriceQtySecCur_RU; 
    CostPrice bomCalcTransCostMarkup; 
    InventQty bomCalcTransNumOfSeries; 
    InventSalesPrice bomCalcTransSalesPriceQty; 
    InventSalesMarkup bomCalcTransSalesMarkupQty; 
    CostMarkup bomCalcTransCostMarkupQty; 
    InventPriceMarkupSecCur_RU bomCalcTransCostMarkupQtySecCur_RU; 
    CostPriceSecCur_RU bomCalcTransCostPriceSecCur_RU; 
    CostPriceSecCur_RU bomCalcTransCostMarkupSecCur_RU; 
    ItemNetWeight bomCalcTransNetWeightQty; 
    PriceUnit bomCalcTransCostPriceUnit; 
    CostingVersionId bomCalcTransCostPriceFallBackVersion; 
    InventSalesPrice bomCalcTransSalesPrice; 
    InventSalesMarkup bomCalcTransSalesMarkup; 
    PriceUnit bomCalcTransSalesPriceUnit; 
    CostingVersionId bomCalcTransSalesPriceFallBackVersion; 
    public void new() 
    { 
        bomCalcTransConsumptionVariable = 50; 
        bomCalcTransConsumptionConstant = 50; 
        bomCalcTransCostPriceQty = 50; 
        bomCalcTransCostPrice = 50; 
        bomCalcTransCostPriceQtySecCur_RU = 50; 
        bomCalcTransCostMarkup = 50; 
        bomCalcTransNumOfSeries = 50; 
        bomCalcTransSalesPriceQty = 50; 
        bomCalcTransSalesMarkupQty = 50; 
        bomCalcTransCostMarkupQty = 50; 
        bomCalcTransCostMarkupQtySecCur_RU = 50; 
        bomCalcTransCostPriceSecCur_RU = 50; 
        bomCalcTransCostMarkupSecCur_RU = 50; 
        bomCalcTransNetWeightQty = 50; 
        bomCalcTransCostPriceUnit = 50; 
        bomCalcTransSalesPrice = 50; 
        bomCalcTransSalesMarkup = 50; 
        bomCalcTransSalesPriceUnit = 50; 
        bomCalcTransSalesPriceFallBackVersion = 'abc';  
        bomCalcTransCostPriceFallBackVersion = 'def'; 
    } 
}

Now; let us create 1,000,000 instances of each and store them all in a List(Types::Class), and measure the memory footprint of each type of the 3 classes – running as IL and running as pcode.

Notice that using a table as a member variable consumes 6x as much memory as having each field as a member – apparently there is a huge overhead associated with the xRecord+Common functionality.

My conclusion – apparently you cannot have nice code and low memory consumption at the same time. My advice – be careful when using tables as member variables, especially in batch scenarios, i.e. classes derived from RunBaseBatch or used by same.