Reading listview w/o high CPU usage

[garbb]

I have a script that periodically reads a listview from another application and checks for changes. I have noticed that when the listview has a large number of rows in it (>500), autoit will have high CPU usage whenever it reads the listview's data.

Here is my test code (which also generates a listview in a GUI to read):

expandcollapse popup

#include <GUIListView.au3>

$iListviewColumns = 26
$iListviewItems = 500   ;rows

;create test GUI
$hGUI = GUICreate("ListView", 1000, 400)
$hListView = GUICtrlCreateListView("", 2, 2, 994, 400)
;add columns to listview
for $i = 1 to $iListviewColumns
    _GUICtrlListView_AddColumn($hListView, "column" & $i, 75)
Next
;add items to listview
for $i = 1 to $iListviewItems
    $sItemText = "item." & $i & "|"
    For $j = 2 to $iListviewColumns
        $sItemText &= "col." & $i & $j & "|"
    Next
    GUICtrlCreateListViewItem($sItemText, $hListView)
Next
GUISetState()

;main loop to poll listview data
while 1
    $data = _GUICtrlListView_CreateArray($hListView)
    sleep(3000)
wend

Func _GUICtrlListView_CreateArray($hListView)
    Local $iColumnCount = _GUICtrlListView_GetColumnCount($hListView), $iItemCount = _GUICtrlListView_GetItemCount($hListView)
    Local $aColumns = 0, $aReturn[$iItemCount + 1][$iColumnCount] = [[$iItemCount, $iColumnCount, '']]

    For $i = 0 To $iItemCount - 1
        For $j = 0 To $iColumnCount - 1
            ;##### switch between these two lines to see the difference in CPU usage (for me the 1st line uses much more CPU)
            $aReturn[$i + 1][$j] = _GUICtrlListView_GetItemText($hListView, $i, $j)
;~          $aReturn[$i + 1][$j] = ControlListView($hGUI, '', $hListView, 'GetText', $i, $j)
        Next
    Next
    Return $aReturn
EndFunc   ;==>_GUICtrlListView_CreateArray

The _GUICtrlListView_CreateArray function in there is just a stripped down version of what guinness made >here. I was experimenting with changing the line that actually reads the listview data (you can see the two lines I was switching between(one is commented out)).

If you run the script and look in windows task manager you can see the CPU spike (on my computer with a quad core it spikes to around 25% for the 1st line and 14% for the second line). Note that I believe for a quad core system and a process that only uses one core like autoit, 25% is basically maxing the CPU.

I searched around and couldn't seem to find a better/more efficient way to read the listview that doesn't use so much CPU. Does anyone know a better way? Is this possible with autoit?

[mLipok]

When the program reads the contents of the ListView, trying to do this as fast as possible.
Therefore, using all available resources.

Tip:
Add Sleep(10) inside the function For .... Next.

For $i = 0 To $iItemCount - 1
    Sleep(10)
        For $j = 0 To $iColumnCount - 1
            ;##### switch between these two lines to see the difference in CPU usage (for me the 1st line uses much more CPU)
            $aReturn[$i + 1][$j] = _GUICtrlListView_GetItemText($hListView, $i, $j)
;~          $aReturn[$i + 1][$j] = ControlListView($hGUI, '', $hListView, 'GetText', $i, $j)
        Next
    Next

mLipok

[garbb]

In my example I have 26 columns * 500 rows = 13000 items. If there is a 10ms delay per item then reading the entire listview will take 130 seconds or a little over 2 minutes.

This will reduce the CPU usage but taking that long to read the listview is not feasible for my application.

With my original code it takes a little over 400ms to read the entire list. I would actually like it to be faster than that but I am not sure if that is possible.

Actually, your logic is not bad. I might be able to change how my script works to be more tolerant of it taking longer to read the list but 2 minutes is too long. The problem is that I think that autoit's sleep() has a minimum of 10ms.

Edited April 16, 2014 by garbb

[JohnOne]

Have you considered using _GUICtrlListView_GetItemTextArray instead of doing it one by one?

[garbb]

Have you considered using _GUICtrlListView_GetItemTextArray instead of doing it one by one?

I didn't.

 

Unfortunately I just tried it and the results were the same as when I tried _GUICtrlListView_GetItemText() because looking in the UDF's I can see that _GUICtrlListView_GetItemTextArray() calls _GUICtrlListView_GetItemTextString() which calls _GUICtrlListView_GetItemText(). So it's basically all the same code...

Edited April 16, 2014 by garbb

[JohnOne]

Only other thing I can think of is using a shorter (high precision) sleep.

For example swap Sleep(10) for

$Timer = TimerInit()
Do
Until TimerDiff($Timer) >= 0.01

There is a high precision sleep using dllcall, that might be better if you can find it.

[PhoenixXL]

I have a script that periodically reads a listview from another application and checks for changes.

Why not wait for the change and then get the items at one go. This would take the same CPU but only at the time when update occurs, or maybe you can modify it to suit you rather better.

 

The following way to proceed, may help,

1. For a third party app, to monitor messages you would have to use
   • _WinAPI_SetWindowsHookEx with $WH_CALLWNDPROCRET
   • Hook the ListView
2. Monitor message LVM_SETITEM LVM_INSERTITEM
3. Respond to the message, and do your stuff.

 

Example in C++

In the moment I can't try for if it works. 

Regards

Phoenix XL

Edited April 16, 2014 by PhoenixXL