How to get the size of a JavaScript object?

Question

I want to know the size occupied by a JavaScript object.

Take the following function:

function Marks(){
  this.maxMarks = 100;
}

function Student(){
  this.firstName = "firstName";
  this.lastName = "lastName";
  this.marks = new Marks();
}

Now I instantiate the student:

var stud = new Student();

so that I can do stuff like

stud.firstName = "new Firstname";

alert(stud.firstName);

stud.marks.maxMarks = 200;

etc.

Now, the stud object will occupy some size in memory. It has some data and more objects.

How do I find out how much memory the stud object occupies? Something like a sizeof() in JavaScript? It would be really awesome if I could find it out in a single function call like sizeof(stud).

I’ve been searching the Internet for months—couldn’t find it (asked in a couple of forums—no replies).

Answer 1

i want to know if my memory reduction efforts actually help in reducing memory

Following up on this comment, here's what you should do: Try to produce a memory problem - Write code that creates all these objects and graudally increase the upper limit until you ran into a problem (Browser crash, Browser freeze or an Out-Of-memory error). Ideally you should repeat this experiment with different browsers and different operating system.

Now there are two options: option 1 - You didn't succeed in producing the memory problem. Hence, you are worrying for nothing. You don't have a memory issue and your program is fine.

option 2- you did get a memory problem. Now ask yourself whether the limit at which the problem occurred is reasonable (in other words: is it likely that this amount of objects will be created at normal use of your code). If the answer is 'No' then you're fine. Otherwise you now know how many objects your code can create. Rework the algorithm such that it does not breach this limit.

Answer 2

I believe you forgot to include 'array'.

  typeOf : function(value) {
        var s = typeof value;
        if (s === 'object')
        {
            if (value)
            {
                if (typeof value.length === 'number' && !(value.propertyIsEnumerable('length')) && typeof value.splice === 'function')
                {
                    s = 'array';
                }
            }
            else
            {
                s = 'null';
            }
        }
        return s;
    },

   estimateSizeOfObject: function(value, level)
    {
        if(undefined === level)
            level = 0;

        var bytes = 0;

        if ('boolean' === typeOf(value))
            bytes = 4;
        else if ('string' === typeOf(value))
            bytes = value.length * 2;
        else if ('number' === typeOf(value))
            bytes = 8;
        else if ('object' === typeOf(value) || 'array' === typeOf(value))
        {
            for(var i in value)
            {
                bytes += i.length * 2;
                bytes+= 8; // an assumed existence overhead
                bytes+= estimateSizeOfObject(value[i], 1)
            }
        }
        return bytes;
    },

   formatByteSize : function(bytes)
    {
        if (bytes < 1024)
            return bytes + " bytes";
        else
        {
            var floatNum = bytes/1024;
            return floatNum.toFixed(2) + " kb";
        }
    },

Answer 3

I have re-factored the code in my original answer. I have removed the recursion and removed the assumed existence overhead.

function roughSizeOfObject( object ) {

    var objectList = [];
    var stack = [ object ];
    var bytes = 0;

    while ( stack.length ) {
        var value = stack.pop();

        if ( typeof value === 'boolean' ) {
            bytes += 4;
        }
        else if ( typeof value === 'string' ) {
            bytes += value.length * 2;
        }
        else if ( typeof value === 'number' ) {
            bytes += 8;
        }
        else if
        (
            typeof value === 'object'
            && objectList.indexOf( value ) === -1
        )
        {
            objectList.push( value );

            for( var i in value ) {
                stack.push( value[ i ] );
            }
        }
    }
    return bytes;
}

Answer 4

Having the same problem. I searched on Google and I want to share with stackoverflow community this solution.

Important:

I used the function shared by Yan Qing on github https://gist.github.com/zensh/4975495

function memorySizeOf(obj) {
    var bytes = 0;

    function sizeOf(obj) {
        if(obj !== null && obj !== undefined) {
            switch(typeof obj) {
            case 'number':
                bytes += 8;
                break;
            case 'string':
                bytes += obj.length * 2;
                break;
            case 'boolean':
                bytes += 4;
                break;
            case 'object':
                var objClass = Object.prototype.toString.call(obj).slice(8, -1);
                if(objClass === 'Object' || objClass === 'Array') {
                    for(var key in obj) {
                        if(!obj.hasOwnProperty(key)) continue;
                        sizeOf(obj[key]);
                    }
                } else bytes += obj.toString().length * 2;
                break;
            }
        }
        return bytes;
    };

    function formatByteSize(bytes) {
        if(bytes < 1024) return bytes + " bytes";
        else if(bytes < 1048576) return(bytes / 1024).toFixed(3) + " KiB";
        else if(bytes < 1073741824) return(bytes / 1048576).toFixed(3) + " MiB";
        else return(bytes / 1073741824).toFixed(3) + " GiB";
    };

    return formatByteSize(sizeOf(obj));
};


var sizeOfStudentObject = memorySizeOf({Student: {firstName: 'firstName', lastName: 'lastName', marks: 10}});
console.log(sizeOfStudentObject);

What do you think about it?

Answer 5

Chrome developer tools has this functionality. I found this article very helpful and does exactly what you want: https://developers.google.com/chrome-developer-tools/docs/heap-profiling

Answer 6

Sometimes I use this to flag really big objects that might be going to the client from the server. It doesn't represent the in memory footprint. It just gets you approximately what it'd cost to send it, or store it.

Also note, it's slow, dev only. But for getting an ballpark answer with one line of code it's been useful for me.

roughObjSize = JSON.stringify(bigObject).length;