Filters help you to ignore methods and instances of classes which you are not interested in, such as standard Java classes, libraries, framework internals, application server core classes etc., so you can more easily focus on own classes of the profiled application.

Applying filters in profiled application runtime

Limiting collected information to certain classes only reduces its value for further analysis, as some important detail potentially can be missed.

The only reason not to collect all available information is to reduce profiling overhead which otherwise would be significant.

That is why CPU tracing is the only profiling mode which applies filters during profiled application runtime.

No other profiling mode which collects stack trace related information applies filters in runtime.

Applying filters in profiler UI

While reviewing a snapshot, you can use different filters or use none at all. In other words, you do not need to start a new profiling session to start or stop using filters. Views are automatically updated when filter settings are changed (of course, except for CPU tracing results which need to be collected anew - see above.)

Filters reduce the depth of call trees and length of stack traces, by skipping successive calls of methods from filtered classes, so you can more easily see the methods of the profiled application.

Filters are applied to views where method call stacks are shown, as well as to hot spot and method list views.

Non-filtered methods are marked with a filled arrow . Filtered methods have an outlined arrow :

Some automatic inspections use filter settings to focus on potential problems in own code of profiled application.

Configuring filters

Select Settings | Edit Filters... in the main menu to configure filters.

Each filter is specified as a list of class or method patterns to be filtered, one pattern per line.

To filter all methods in given class(es), use this format:

<fully qualified class name>

To filter particular methods in given class(es), use this format:

<fully qualified class name> : <method name> ( <comma-separated parameter types> )

Wildcards ('*') are accepted.

Examples:

foo.bar.MyClass - filter all methods of given class
foo.bar.MyClass:*(*) - same as above
bar.* - filter methods in all matching classes
bar.* : print*(*) - filter all methods from bar.* with name starting with 'print' and any number of parameters
* : toString() - filter toString() in all classes
com.foo.* : <init>(int, String) - filter constructors of classes in com.foo.* with given signature

To specify classes or methods which must not be filtered, prepend the pattern with '+'.

Example: filter classes in packages 'foo' and 'bar' (with subpackages), but not in package 'bar.myclasses' (with subpackages):

foo.*
bar.*
+bar.myclasses.*