The Disassembly Tab

The Disassembly tab shows a disassembly listing for the object file that contains the selected function, source line or instruction. Each instruction is annotated with performance metrics. If the source code is available it is inserted into the listing. Each source line is placed above the first instruction that it generates. Source lines can appear in blocks when compiler optimizations of the code rearrange the order of the instructions. If compiler commentary is available it is inserted with the source code.

Lines with high metric values have the metric highlighted. A high metric value is one that exceeds a threshold percentage of the largest value of that metric on any line in the file.

If the selected object is a function, the display is positioned at the first instruction for that function. If the selected object is a source line, the display is positioned at the first instruction for that source line. If the selected object is an instruction, the display is positioned at that instruction.

If you select a line in the Disassembly tab, the instruction on that line becomes the selected object, which determines where the display is positioned when you switch tabs.

If the selected function was dynamically compiled, you only see instructions for that function. If you provided information on the function using the collector API, you only see non-zero source metrics for the specified function, even if there are more functions in the source file.

Index lines, red italicized text enclosed in angle-brackets, might displayed in disassembly view. Unlike with the Source view, these index lines cannot be used directly for navigation purposes. However, placing the cursor on one of the instructions immediately below the index line and selecting the Source tab will navigate you to the file referenced in the index line.

To search for lines with high metric values:

  1. Choose High Metric Value from the Find list box in the toolbar.
  2. Click one of the up or down arrows to search.

To search for text in the assembly code:

  1. Enter the search text in the text box in the Find tool in the toolbar.
  2. Click one of the up or down arrows to search.
tip To change the highlighting threshold, compiler commentary and metrics displayed, choose View and choose Set Data Presentation and click the Source/Disassembly tab.
tip You can copy lines as text by dragging through them and pressing Copy or Ctrl-C.
See also
Interpreting Annotated Disassembly Code
Metric Value Meanings in the Source and Disassembly Tabs
Setting Data Presentation Preferences

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