Which is faster: clear collection or instantiate new

Question

I have some number of generic lists in my code, that have tens or hundreds elements. Sometimes I need to refill this lists with other objects, so question is: what will be f

Answer 1

I've made several tests for myself. Results (speed) are:

• for small lists - eg 3 items, its faster to create new lists, but the difference is not big
• for 10 or more items on average it is better to clear lists. For value types much better (eg 3-4 times), for value times like 20% better.

But in the end, it's better to profile application and find bottlenecks for whole application.