Fastest way to check if string contains only digits

Question

I know a few ways how to check this. regex,int.parse,tryparse,looping.

can anyone tell me what is the fastest way to check?

the nee

Answer 1

If you are concerned about performance, use neither int.TryParse nor Regex - write your own (simple) function (DigitsOnly or DigitsOnly2 below, but not DigitsOnly3 - LINQ seems to incur a significant overhead).

Also, be aware that int.TryParse will fail if the string is too long to "fit" into int.

This simple benchmark...

class Program {

    static bool DigitsOnly(string s) {
        int len = s.Length;
        for (int i = 0; i < len; ++i) {
            char c = s[i];
            if (c < '0' || c > '9')
                return false;
        }
        return true;
    }

    static bool DigitsOnly2(string s) {
        foreach (char c in s) {
            if (c < '0' || c > '9')
                return false;
        }
        return true;
    }

    static bool DigitsOnly3(string s) {
        return s.All(c => c >= '0' && c <= '9');
    }

    static void Main(string[] args) {

        const string s1 = "916734184";
        const string s2 = "916734a84";

        const int iterations = 1000000;
        var sw = new Stopwatch();

        sw.Restart();
        for (int i = 0 ; i < iterations; ++i) {
            bool success = DigitsOnly(s1);
            bool failure = DigitsOnly(s2);
        }
        sw.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("DigitsOnly: {0}", sw.Elapsed));

        sw.Restart();
        for (int i = 0; i < iterations; ++i) {
            bool success = DigitsOnly2(s1);
            bool failure = DigitsOnly2(s2);
        }
        sw.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("DigitsOnly2: {0}", sw.Elapsed));

        sw.Restart();
        for (int i = 0; i < iterations; ++i) {
            bool success = DigitsOnly3(s1);
            bool failure = DigitsOnly3(s2);
        }
        sw.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("DigitsOnly3: {0}", sw.Elapsed));

        sw.Restart();
        for (int i = 0; i < iterations; ++i) {
            int dummy;
            bool success = int.TryParse(s1, out dummy);
            bool failure = int.TryParse(s2, out dummy);
        }
        sw.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("int.TryParse: {0}", sw.Elapsed));

        sw.Restart();
        var regex = new Regex("^[0-9]+$", RegexOptions.Compiled);
        for (int i = 0; i < iterations; ++i) {
            bool success = regex.IsMatch(s1);
            bool failure = regex.IsMatch(s2);
        }
        sw.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Regex.IsMatch: {0}", sw.Elapsed));

    }

}

...produces the following result...

DigitsOnly: 00:00:00.0346094
DigitsOnly2: 00:00:00.0365220
DigitsOnly3: 00:00:00.2669425
int.TryParse: 00:00:00.3405548
Regex.IsMatch: 00:00:00.7017648