SYSK 166: Stream Output Performance Comparison

If you need to write a large number of data items (e.g. records with many fields) to a stream, do you think it’s faster to use multiple stream.Write statements or “batch it” via string.Format and use one stream.Write statement per record?

My tests show that you’ll get almost twice the performance by using fewer stream.Write statements (see code below):

Many statements: 6875000 ticks

Batch: 3437500 ticks

Many statements: 6406250 ticks

Batch: 3281250 ticks

Many statements: 6093750 ticks

Batch: 3437500 ticks

Note:  I tested this using a MemoryStream and writing to a File – both resulted in roughly same ratio.

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

    int[] numbers = new int[10];

    for (int i = 0; i < numbers.Length; i++)

    {

        numbers[i] = i;

    }

    System.IO.MemoryStream ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream();

    System.IO.StreamWriter stream = new System.IO.StreamWriter(ms);

    long t1, t2;

    t1 = DateTime.Now.Ticks;

    for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)

    {

        stream.Write("{0}", numbers[0]);

        stream.Write("{0}", numbers[1]);

        stream.Write("{0}", numbers[2]);

        stream.Write("{0}", numbers[3]);

        stream.Write("{0}", numbers[4]);

        stream.Write("{0}", numbers[5]);

        stream.Write("{0}", numbers[6]);

        stream.Write("{0}", numbers[7]);

        stream.Write("{0}", numbers[8]);

        stream.Write("{0}", numbers[9]);

    }

    t2 = DateTime.Now.Ticks;

    stream.Close();

    ms.Close();

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(string.Format("Many statements: {0} ticks", t2 - t1));

    ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream();

    stream = new System.IO.StreamWriter(ms);

    t1 = DateTime.Now.Ticks;

    for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)

    {

        string buffer = string.Format("{0}{1}{2}{3}{4}{5}{6}{7}{8}{9}",

            numbers[0], numbers[1], numbers[2], numbers[3], numbers[4], numbers[5],

            numbers[6], numbers[7], numbers[8], numbers[9]);

        stream.Write(buffer);

    }

    t2 = DateTime.Now.Ticks;

    stream.Close();

    ms.Close();

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(string.Format("Batch: {0} ticks", t2 - t1));

}