# The ResourcesEstimator Target Machine

As the name implies, the ResourcesEstimator estimates the resources required to run a given instance of a Q# operation on a quantum computer. It accomplishes this by executing the quantum operation without actually simulating the state of a quantum computer; for this reason, it can estimate resources for Q# operations that use thousands of qubits, if the classical part of the code can be run in a reasonable time.

## Usage

The ResourcesEstimator is just another type of target machine, thus it can be used to run any Q# operation.

As other target machines, to use it on a C# host program create an instance and pass it as the first parameter of the operation's Run method:

using Microsoft.Quantum.Simulation.Core;
using Microsoft.Quantum.Simulation.Simulators;

namespace Quantum.MyProgram
{
class Driver
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
ResourcesEstimator estimator = new ResourcesEstimator();
MyQuantumProgram.Run(estimator).Wait();
Console.WriteLine(estimator.ToTSV());
}
}
}


As the example shows, the ResourcesEstimator provides a ToTSV() method to generate a table with tab-seperated-values (TSV) that can be saved into a file or written to the console for analysis. The output of the above program should look something like this:

Metric          Sum
CNOT            1000
QubitClifford   1000
R               0
Measure         4002
T               0
Depth           0
Width           2
BorrowedWidth   0


Note

The ResourcesEstimator does not reset its calculations on every run, if the same instance is used to execute another operation it will keep aggregating counts on top of existing results. If you need to reset calculations between runs, create a new instance for every execution.

## Programmatically Retrieving the Estimated Data

In addition to a TSV table, the resources estimated can be retrieved programmatically via the ResourcesEstimator's Data property. Data provides a System.DataTable instance with two columns: Metric and Sum, indexed by the metrics names.

The following code shows how to retrieve and print the total number of QubitClifford, T and CNOT gates used by a Q# operation:

using Microsoft.Quantum.Simulation.Core;
using Microsoft.Quantum.Simulation.Simulators;

namespace Quantum.MyProgram
{
class Driver
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
ResourcesEstimator estimator = new ResourcesEstimator();
MyQuantumProgram.Run(estimator).Wait();

var data = estimator.Data;
Console.WriteLine($"QubitCliffords: {data.Rows.Find("QubitClifford")["Sum"]}"); Console.WriteLine($"Ts: {data.Rows.Find("T")["Sum"]}");
Console.WriteLine(\$"CNOTs: {data.Rows.Find("CNOT")["Sum"]}");
}
}
}


## Metrics Reported

The following is the list of metrics estimated by the ResourcesEstimator:

• CNOT: The count of CNOT (also known as the Controlled Pauli X gate) gates executed.
• QubitClifford: The count of any single qubit Clifford and Pauli gates executed.
• Measure: The count of any measurements executed.
• R: The count of any single qubit rotations executed, excluding T, Clifford and Pauli gates.
• T: The count of T gates and their conjugates, including the T gate, T_x = H.T.H, and T_y = Hy.T.Hy, executed.
• Depth: Depth of the quantum circuit executed by the Q# operation. By default, only T gates are counted in the depth, see depth counter for details.
• Width: Maximum number of qubits allocated during the execution of the Q# operation.
• BorrowedWidth: Maximum number of qubits borrowed inside the Q# operation.

## Providing the Probability of Measurement Outcomes

AssertProb from the Microsoft.Quantum.Intrinsic namespace can be used to provide information about the expected probability of a measurement to help drive the execution of the Q# program. The following example illustrates this:

operation Teleport(source : Qubit, target : Qubit) : Unit {

using (qubit = Qubit()) {

H(q);
CNOT(qubit, target);

CNOT(source, qubit);
H(source);

AssertProb([PauliZ], [source], Zero, 0.5, "Outcomes must be equally likely", 1e-5);
AssertProb([PauliZ], [qubit], Zero, 0.5, "Outcomes must be equally likely", 1e-5);

if (M(source) == One)  { Z(target); X(source); }
if (M(qubit) == One) { X(target); X(qubit); }
}
}


When the ResourcesEstimator encounters AssertProb it will record that measuring PauliZ on source and q should be given an outcome of Zero with probability 0.5. When it executes M later, it will find the recorded values of the outcome probabilities and M will return Zero or One with probability 0.5.

The ResourcesEstimator is built on top of the quantum computer trace simulator, which provides a richer set of metrics, the ability to report metrics on the full call-graph, and features like distinct inputs checker to help find bugs on Q# programs. Please refer to the trace simulator documentation for more information.