PerformanceCounter RawValue is not changed\modified

Question

I am trying to modify a PerformanceCounter I have created in C#. But it doesn't seem to be that it is being changed. This counter needs actualy to be a flag : 0 or 1.

I took the following code from the net. It created the collectors category along with the counters well. But the RawValue always shows 0!

I am working on Win7/64.

Can you advise please?

    using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace PerformanceCounterSample
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Entry class for the sample
    /// </summary>
    class PerformanceCounterSampleStarter
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Imports the <code>QueryPerformanceFrequency</code> me  thod into the class. The method is used to measure the current
        /// tickcount of the system.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="ticks">current tick count</param>
        [DllImport("Kernel32.dll")]
        public static extern void QueryPerformanceCounter(ref long ticks);

        /// <summary>
        /// Main thread
        /// </summary>
        [STAThread]
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            PerformanceCounterSample test = new PerformanceCounterSample();
            Random rand = new Random();
            long startTime = 0;
            long endTime = 0;

            for (int i=0; i<1000; i++)
            {
                // measure starting time
                QueryPerformanceCounter(ref startTime);

                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(rand.Next(500));

                // measure ending time
                QueryPerformanceCounter(ref endTime);

                // do some processing
                test.DoSomeProcessing(endTime - startTime);
            }
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// The PerformanceCounterSample class sets up a performance counter category called "JamboCpmTool" if it does not already
    /// exists and adds some counters to it. It provides a method to increment these counters.
    /// </summary>
    public class PerformanceCounterSample
    {
        private PerformanceCounter m_cntrJoinConctConf_VPG_MyJamboLogin;

        public PerformanceCounterSample()
        {
            if (!PerformanceCounterCategory.Exists("JamboCpmTool"))
            {
                CounterCreationDataCollection counters = new CounterCreationDataCollection();

                CounterCreationData VPG_MyJamboLogin = new CounterCreationData();
                VPG_MyJamboLogin.CounterName = "JoinConnectConf_VPG_MyJamboLogin";
                VPG_MyJamboLogin.CounterHelp = "Join Connect Conf VPG MyJambo Login Success";
                VPG_MyJamboLogin.CounterType = PerformanceCounterType.NumberOfItems64;
                counters.Add(VPG_MyJamboLogin);

                // create new category with the counters above
                System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounterCategory.Create("JamboCpmTool", "Sample category for Codeproject", PerformanceCounterCategoryType.SingleInstance, counters);
            }

            // create counters to work with
            m_cntrJoinConctConf_VPG_MyJamboLogin = new PerformanceCounter();
            m_cntrJoinConctConf_VPG_MyJamboLogin.CategoryName = "JamboCpmTool";
            m_cntrJoinConctConf_VPG_MyJamboLogin.CounterName = "JoinConctConf_VPG_MyJamboLogin";
            m_cntrJoinConctConf_VPG_MyJamboLogin.MachineName = ".";
            m_cntrJoinConctConf_VPG_MyJamboLogin.ReadOnly = false;
            m_cntrJoinConctConf_VPG_MyJamboLogin.RawValue = 0;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Increments counters.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="ticks">The number of ticks the AverageTimer32 counter must be incremented by</param>
        public void DoSomeProcessing(long ticks)
        {
            m_cntrJoinConctConf_VPG_MyJamboLogin.RawValue = 100L;
            Console.WriteLine("m_cntrJoinConctConf_VPG_MyJamboLogin = " + m_cntrJoinConctConf_VPG_MyJamboLogin.RawValue);
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

You need to call m_cntrJoinConctConf_VPG_MyJamboLogin.NextValue(); to populate the properties.

Note: the first time you call NextValue() the RawValue will be 0 as the function is comparative. Thus, the next time you call NextValue() you should have your answer.

The minimum recommend frequency between reading perf counters is 1 second.

See this MSDN article for more details.