For C# logging, how do I obtain the call stack depth with minimal overhead?

Question

I have created a wrapper for Log4net (which I may be dropping in favor of NLog; I haven't decided yet), and I indent the logged messages result to give an idea of calling structure. For example:

2011-04-03 00:20:30,271 [CT] DEBUG  -     Merlinia.ProcessManager.CentralThread.ProcessAdminCommand - ProcStart - User Info Repository
2011-04-03 00:20:30,271 [CT] DEBUG  -      Merlinia.ProcessManager.CentralThread.StartOneProcess - User Info Repository
2011-04-03 00:20:30,411 [CT] DEBUG  -       Merlinia.ProcessManager.CentralThread.SetProcessStatus - Process = User Info Repository, status = ProcStarting
2011-04-03 00:20:30,411 [CT] DEBUG  -        Merlinia.ProcessManager.CentralThread.SendProcessStatusInfo
2011-04-03 00:20:30,411 [CT] DEBUG  -         Merlinia.CommonClasses.MhlAdminLayer.SendToAllAdministrators - ProcessTable
2011-04-03 00:20:30,411 [CT] DEBUG  -          Merlinia.CommonClasses.MReflection.CopyToBinary
2011-04-03 00:20:30,411 [CT] DEBUG  -           Merlinia.CommonClasses.MReflection.CopyToBinary - False
2011-04-03 00:20:30,411 [CT] DEBUG  -          Merlinia.CommonClasses.MhlBasicLayer.SendToAllConnections - 228 - True - False
2011-04-03 00:20:30,411 [CT] DEBUG  -           Merlinia.CommonClasses.MmlNonThreaded.SendObject - 228
2011-04-03 00:20:30,411 [CT] DEBUG  -            Merlinia.CommonClasses.MllTcpSocket.SendMessage - 228 - True
2011-04-03 00:20:32,174 [10] DEBUG  -    Merlinia.CommonClasses.MReflection.CreateFromBinary
2011-04-03 00:20:32,174 [10] DEBUG  -     Merlinia.CommonClasses.MReflection.CopyFromBinary - Bytes = 71
2011-04-03 00:20:32,174 [CT] DEBUG  - Merlinia.ProcessManager.CentralThread.MessagingCallback - User Info Repository - ProcessInfoAndRequests
2011-04-03 00:20:32,174 [CT] DEBUG  -  Merlinia.ProcessManager.CentralThread.ProcessProcessInfoAndRequests - User Info Repository

I do this using System.Diagnostics.StackTrace and counting StackFrames.

Now here's the question: Is there any more efficient way of doing this? I only need to determine the (relative) call stack depth, i.e., is the current depth plus or minus what it was the last time my logging wrapper was called. (Note that I do not actually use the StackFrame objects - I get the method names otherwise.)

I'm hoping for some simple high-performance way of querying the call stack depth or stack usage.

Answer 1

Simply use the StackTrace.FrameCount property, and compare it to the previously recorded FrameCount. FYI, FrameCount is probably the fastest method to retrieve the actual frame count, since it only returns the internal m_iNumOfFrames field back to you.