profiler

A profiler runs alongside a program and collects data such as how often functions are called, how long each section takes and how much memory is used, revealing which parts are slow or resource-hungry. Measuring and analyzing performance this way is called profiling.

Profilers generally work either by sampling, which records the program's state at regular intervals, or by instrumentation, which inserts measurement points into the code. Results are often presented as call graphs or flame graphs, and profilers are built into web browser developer tools and the development tools of many programming languages.

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