Greg’s profile results are great for the exact scenario he covered, but interestingly, the relative costs of the different methods change dramatically when considering a number of different factors including the number of types being compared, and the relative frequency and any patterns in the underlying data.
The simple answer is that nobody can tell you what the performance difference is going to be in your specific scenario, you will need to measure the performance in different ways yourself in your own system to get an accurate answer.
The If/Else chain is an effective approach for a small number of type comparisons, or if you can reliably predict which few types are going to make up the majority of the ones that you see. The potential problem with the approach is that as the number of types increases, the number of comparisons that must be executed increases as well.
if I execute the following:
int value = 25124;
if(value == 0) ...
else if (value == 1) ...
else if (value == 2) ...
...
else if (value == 25124) ...
each of the previous if conditions must be evaluated before the correct block is entered. On the other hand
switch(value) {
case 0:...break;
case 1:...break;
case 2:...break;
...
case 25124:...break;
}
will perform one simple jump to the correct bit of code.
Where it gets more complicated in your example is that your other method uses a switch on strings rather than integers which gets a little more complicated. At a low level, strings can’t be switched on in the same way that integer values can so the C# compiler does some magic to make this work for you.
If the switch statement is “small enough” (where the compiler does what it thinks is best automatically) switching on strings generates code that is the same as an if/else chain.
switch(someString) {
case "Foo": DoFoo(); break;
case "Bar": DoBar(); break;
default: DoOther; break;
}
is the same as:
if(someString == "Foo") {
DoFoo();
} else if(someString == "Bar") {
DoBar();
} else {
DoOther();
}
Once the list of items in the dictionary gets “big enough” the compiler will automatically create an internal dictionary that maps from the strings in the switch to an integer index and then a switch based on that index.
It looks something like this (Just imagine more entries than I am going to bother to type)
A static field is defined in a “hidden” location that is associated with the class containing the switch statement of type Dictionary<string, int> and given a mangled name
//Make sure the dictionary is loaded
if(theDictionary == null) {
//This is simplified for clarity, the actual implementation is more complex
// in order to ensure thread safety
theDictionary = new Dictionary<string,int>();
theDictionary["Foo"] = 0;
theDictionary["Bar"] = 1;
}
int switchIndex;
if(theDictionary.TryGetValue(someString, out switchIndex)) {
switch(switchIndex) {
case 0: DoFoo(); break;
case 1: DoBar(); break;
}
} else {
DoOther();
}
In some quick tests that I just ran, the If/Else method is about 3x as fast as the switch for 3 different types (where the types are randomly distributed). At 25 types the switch is faster by a small margin (16%) at 50 types the switch is more than twice as fast.
If you are going to be switching on a large number of types, I would suggest a 3rd method:
private delegate void NodeHandler(ChildNode node);
static Dictionary<RuntimeTypeHandle, NodeHandler> TypeHandleSwitcher = CreateSwitcher();
private static Dictionary<RuntimeTypeHandle, NodeHandler> CreateSwitcher()
{
var ret = new Dictionary<RuntimeTypeHandle, NodeHandler>();
ret[typeof(Bob).TypeHandle] = HandleBob;
ret[typeof(Jill).TypeHandle] = HandleJill;
ret[typeof(Marko).TypeHandle] = HandleMarko;
return ret;
}
void HandleChildNode(ChildNode node)
{
NodeHandler handler;
if (TaskHandleSwitcher.TryGetValue(Type.GetRuntimeType(node), out handler))
{
handler(node);
}
else
{
//Unexpected type...
}
}
This is similar to what Ted Elliot suggested, but the usage of runtime type handles instead of full type objects avoids the overhead of loading the type object through reflection.
Here are some quick timings on my machine:
Testing 3 iterations with 5,000,000 data elements (mode=Random) and 5 types Method Time % of optimal If/Else 179.67 100.00 TypeHandleDictionary 321.33 178.85 TypeDictionary 377.67 210.20 Switch 492.67 274.21 Testing 3 iterations with 5,000,000 data elements (mode=Random) and 10 types Method Time % of optimal If/Else 271.33 100.00 TypeHandleDictionary 312.00 114.99 TypeDictionary 374.33 137.96 Switch 490.33 180.71 Testing 3 iterations with 5,000,000 data elements (mode=Random) and 15 types Method Time % of optimal TypeHandleDictionary 312.00 100.00 If/Else 369.00 118.27 TypeDictionary 371.67 119.12 Switch 491.67 157.59 Testing 3 iterations with 5,000,000 data elements (mode=Random) and 20 types Method Time % of optimal TypeHandleDictionary 335.33 100.00 TypeDictionary 373.00 111.23 If/Else 462.67 137.97 Switch 490.33 146.22 Testing 3 iterations with 5,000,000 data elements (mode=Random) and 25 types Method Time % of optimal TypeHandleDictionary 319.33 100.00 TypeDictionary 371.00 116.18 Switch 483.00 151.25 If/Else 562.00 175.99 Testing 3 iterations with 5,000,000 data elements (mode=Random) and 50 types Method Time % of optimal TypeHandleDictionary 319.67 100.00 TypeDictionary 376.67 117.83 Switch 453.33 141.81 If/Else 1,032.67 323.04
On my machine at least, the type handle dictionary approach beats all of the others for anything over 15 different types when the distribution
of the types used as input to the method is random.
If on the other hand, the input is composed entirely of the type that is checked first in the if/else chain that method is much faster:
Testing 3 iterations with 5,000,000 data elements (mode=UniformFirst) and 50 types Method Time % of optimal If/Else 39.00 100.00 TypeHandleDictionary 317.33 813.68 TypeDictionary 396.00 1,015.38 Switch 403.00 1,033.33
Conversely, if the input is always the last thing in the if/else chain, it has the opposite effect:
Testing 3 iterations with 5,000,000 data elements (mode=UniformLast) and 50 types Method Time % of optimal TypeHandleDictionary 317.67 100.00 Switch 354.33 111.54 TypeDictionary 377.67 118.89 If/Else 1,907.67 600.52
If you can make some assumptions about your input, you might get the best performance from a hybrid approach where you perform if/else checks for the few types that are most common, and then fall back to a dictionary-driven approach if those fail.