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Iteration Performance in .NET

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20 May 20031 min read 110.5K   567   25   21
Article on the relative performance of various methods of iterating through large amounts of data.

Introduction

I’ve been implementing numerical libraries in .NET and have come to some conclusions about iteration performance. My classes have to hold a large amount of data and be able to iterate through that data as quickly as possible. In order to compare various methods, I created a simple class called Data that encapsulates an array of doubles.

Method #1: Enumeration

Data implements IEnumerable. It contains GetEnumerator which returns its own DataEnumerator, an inner class.
C#
public DataEnumerator GetEnumerator() 
    {
      return new DataEnumerator( this );
    }

    IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
      return GetEnumerator();
    }
  }
	
…
  public struct DataEnumerator : IEnumerator
  {
    private Data internal_;
    private int index_;

    public DataEnumerator( Data data ) 
    {
      internal_ = data;
      index_ = 1;
    }

    public double Current
    {
      get
      {
        return internal_.Array[index_];
      }
    }

    object IEnumerator.Current 
    {
      get
      {
        return Current;
      }
    }
  
    public bool MoveNext()
    {
      index_++;
      if ( index_ >= internal_.Array.Length ) 
      {
        return false;
      }
      return true;
    }

    public void Reset()
    {
      index_ = -1;
    }
  }
}
…

Method #2: Indexing

I implemented an index operator on the class which simply calls the index operator on the array.

C#
public double this[int position]
{
  get
  {
    return array_[position];
  }
}

Method #3: Indirect Array

I created a property to access the array.

C#
public double[] Array
{
  get
  {
    return array_;
  }
}

When iterating, I called the Array property and then its index operator.

C#
d = data.Array[j];

Method #4: Direct Array

I created a reference to the array.

C#
double[] array = data.Array;

Then, I iterate through that reference.

C#
d = array[j];

Method #5: Pointer Math

Finally, I tried improving performance by iterating through the array in Managed C++ using pointer manipulation.

MC++
static void iterate( Data& data )
{
  double d;
  double __pin* ptr = &( data.Array[0] );
  for ( int i = 0; i < data.Array.Length; i++ )
  {
    d = *ptr;
    ++ptr;
  }
}

I called it this way:

MC++
Pointer.iterate( data );

Conclusions

To test the different methods, I allocated 1,000,000 doubles into an array and indexed over all of them. I repeated this 1,000 times to minimize randomness. Here are the results...

Results

Enumeration is always slow. That’s not surprising as I’m using a general data structure to hold the doubles. The three operator/property methods differed very slightly. These are probably all optimized similarly. Using pointer math to traverse over the raw data was significantly faster. This is probably due to the fact that there’s no bounds checking. In summary, if you have large amounts of data and performance is critical, consider using managed C++.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Mark Vulfson of ProWorks for tips on using Flipper Graph Control. Also, to my colleagues Ken Baldwin and Steve Sneller at CenterSpace Software.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here


Written By
CEO CenterSpace Software
United States United States
Trevor has held demanding development positions for a variety of firms using C++, Java, .NET, and other technologies, including Rogue Wave Software, CleverSet, and ProWorks. He is coauthor of The Elements of Java Style , The Elements of C++ Style, and The Elements of C# Style, published by Cambridge University Press. He has also served on a course advisory board of the University of Washington. His teams have won the JavaWorld "GUI Product of the Year" and XML Magazine "Product of the Year" awards. Trevor holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia and a BA in Economics from the University of Western Ontario.

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralNice Pin
Anthony_Yio13-Oct-03 15:51
Anthony_Yio13-Oct-03 15:51 
GeneralEnumerations Pin
Paul Evans26-May-03 23:19
Paul Evans26-May-03 23:19 
GeneralRe: Enumerations Pin
asm4328-May-03 11:21
asm4328-May-03 11:21 
GeneralUpdate Pin
Trevor Misfeldt7-May-03 5:55
Trevor Misfeldt7-May-03 5:55 
GeneralRe: Update Pin
dog_spawn21-May-03 16:22
dog_spawn21-May-03 16:22 
GeneralRe: Update Pin
Morten Sparding11-Mar-05 22:28
Morten Sparding11-Mar-05 22:28 
Generalunsafe C# Pin
John Rayner7-May-03 5:04
John Rayner7-May-03 5:04 
GeneralRe: unsafe C# Pin
Trevor Misfeldt7-May-03 5:53
Trevor Misfeldt7-May-03 5:53 
GeneralEnumeration performance Pin
James T. Johnson2-May-03 1:59
James T. Johnson2-May-03 1:59 
GeneralRe: Enumeration performance Pin
Trevor Misfeldt2-May-03 4:29
Trevor Misfeldt2-May-03 4:29 
GeneralRe: Enumeration performance Pin
Andy Gray6-May-03 6:23
Andy Gray6-May-03 6:23 
GeneralRe: Enumeration performance Pin
JedrekM20-Jun-03 8:35
JedrekM20-Jun-03 8:35 
GeneralRe: Enumeration performance Pin
Trevor Misfeldt20-Jun-03 9:46
Trevor Misfeldt20-Jun-03 9:46 
GeneralRe: Enumeration performance Pin
Oscar Bowyer6-May-03 3:44
Oscar Bowyer6-May-03 3:44 
GeneralRe: Enumeration performance Pin
James T. Johnson6-May-03 4:36
James T. Johnson6-May-03 4:36 
GeneralRe: Enumeration performance Pin
mikasa22-May-03 3:11
mikasa22-May-03 3:11 
GeneralRe: Enumeration performance Pin
James T. Johnson22-May-03 9:11
James T. Johnson22-May-03 9:11 
GeneralRe: Enumeration performance Pin
mikasa22-May-03 9:18
mikasa22-May-03 9:18 
GeneralRe: Enumeration performance Pin
James T. Johnson22-May-03 9:29
James T. Johnson22-May-03 9:29 

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