What is the fastest (built-in) comparison for string-types in C#

Question

What is the fastest built-in comparison-method for string-types in C#? I don\'t mind about the typographical/semantical meaning: the aim is to use the comparator in sorted lists

Answer 1

I designed a unit test to test string comparison speed using some of the methods mentioned in this post. This test was ran using .NET 4

In short, there isn't much much difference, and I had to go to 100,000,000 iterations to see a significant difference. Since it seems the characters are compared in turn until a difference is found, inevitably how similar the strings are plays a part.

These results actually seem to suggest that using str1.Equals(str2) is the fastest way to compare strings.

These are the results of the test, with the test class included:

######## SET 1 compared strings are the same: 0
#### Basic == compare: 413
#### Equals compare: 355
#### Equals(compare2, StringComparison.Ordinal) compare: 387
#### String.Compare(compare1, compare2, StringComparison.Ordinal) compare: 426
#### String.CompareOrdinal(compare1, compare2) compare: 412

######## SET 2 compared strings are NOT the same: 0
#### Basic == compare: 710
#### Equals compare: 733
#### Equals(compare2, StringComparison.Ordinal) compare: 840
#### String.Compare(compare1, compare2, StringComparison.Ordinal) compare: 987
#### String.CompareOrdinal(compare1, compare2) compare: 776

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using NUnit.Framework;

namespace Fwr.UnitTests
{
    [TestFixture]
    public class StringTests
    {
        [Test]
        public void Test_fast_string_compare()
        {
            int iterations = 100000000;
            bool result = false;
            var stopWatch = new Stopwatch();

            Debug.WriteLine("######## SET 1 compared strings are the same: " + stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

            string compare1 = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";
            string compare2 = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";

            // Test 1

            stopWatch.Start();

            for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++)
            {
                result = compare1 == compare2;
            }

            stopWatch.Stop();

            Debug.WriteLine("#### Basic == compare: " + stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

            stopWatch.Reset();

            // Test 2

            stopWatch.Start();

            for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++)
            {
                result = compare1.Equals(compare2);
            }

            stopWatch.Stop();

            Debug.WriteLine("#### Equals compare: " + stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

            stopWatch.Reset();

            // Test 3

            stopWatch.Start();

            for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++)
            {
                result = compare1.Equals(compare2, StringComparison.Ordinal);
            }

            stopWatch.Stop();

            Debug.WriteLine("#### Equals(compare2, StringComparison.Ordinal) compare: " + stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

            stopWatch.Reset();

            // Test 4

            stopWatch.Start();

            for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++)
            {
                result = String.Compare(compare1, compare2, StringComparison.Ordinal) != 0;
            }

            stopWatch.Stop();

            Debug.WriteLine("#### String.Compare(compare1, compare2, StringComparison.Ordinal) compare: " + stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

            stopWatch.Reset();

            // Test 5

            stopWatch.Start();

            for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++)
            {
                result = String.CompareOrdinal(compare1, compare2) != 0;
            }

            stopWatch.Stop();

            Debug.WriteLine("#### String.CompareOrdinal(compare1, compare2) compare: " + stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

            stopWatch.Reset();

            Debug.WriteLine("######## SET 2 compared strings are NOT the same: " + stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

            compare1 = "ueoqwwnsdlkskjsowy";
            compare2 = "sakjdjsjahsdhsjdak";

            // Test 1

            stopWatch.Start();

            for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++)
            {
                result = compare1 == compare2;
            }

            stopWatch.Stop();

            Debug.WriteLine("#### Basic == compare: " + stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

            stopWatch.Reset();

            // Test 2

            stopWatch.Start();

            for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++)
            {
                result = compare1.Equals(compare2);
            }

            stopWatch.Stop();

            Debug.WriteLine("#### Equals compare: " + stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

            stopWatch.Reset();

            // Test 3

            stopWatch.Start();

            for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++)
            {
                result = compare1.Equals(compare2, StringComparison.Ordinal);
            }

            stopWatch.Stop();

            Debug.WriteLine("#### Equals(compare2, StringComparison.Ordinal) compare: " + stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

            stopWatch.Reset();

            // Test 4

            stopWatch.Start();

            for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++)
            {
                result = String.Compare(compare1, compare2, StringComparison.Ordinal) != 0;
            }

            stopWatch.Stop();

            Debug.WriteLine("#### String.Compare(compare1, compare2, StringComparison.Ordinal) compare: " + stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

            stopWatch.Reset();

            // Test 5

            stopWatch.Start();

            for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++)
            {
                result = String.CompareOrdinal(compare1, compare2) != 0;
            }

            stopWatch.Stop();

            Debug.WriteLine("#### String.CompareOrdinal(compare1, compare2) compare: " + stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

            stopWatch.Reset();
        }
    }
}