C# Thread safe fast(est) counter

Question

What is the way to obtain a thread safe counter in C# with best possible performance?

This is as simple as it gets:

public static long GetNextValue()         


        

Answer 1

As already mentioned use Interlocked.Increment

Code example from MS:

The following example determines how many random numbers that range from 0 to 1,000 are required to generate 1,000 random numbers with a midpoint value. To keep track of the number of midpoint values, a variable, midpointCount, is set equal to 0 and incremented each time the random number generator returns a midpoint value until it reaches 10,000. Because three threads generate the random numbers, the Increment(Int32) method is called to ensure that multiple threads don't update midpointCount concurrently. Note that a lock is also used to protect the random number generator, and that a CountdownEvent object is used to ensure that the Main method doesn't finish execution before the three threads.

using System;
using System.Threading;

public class Example
{
   const int LOWERBOUND = 0;
   const int UPPERBOUND = 1001;

   static Object lockObj = new Object();
   static Random rnd = new Random();
   static CountdownEvent cte;

   static int totalCount = 0;
   static int totalMidpoint = 0;
   static int midpointCount = 0;

   public static void Main()
   {
      cte = new CountdownEvent(1);
      // Start three threads. 
      for (int ctr = 0; ctr <= 2; ctr++) {
         cte.AddCount();
         Thread th = new Thread(GenerateNumbers);
         th.Name = "Thread" + ctr.ToString();
         th.Start();
      }
      cte.Signal();
      cte.Wait();
      Console.WriteLine();
      Console.WriteLine("Total midpoint values:  {0,10:N0} ({1:P3})",
                        totalMidpoint, totalMidpoint/((double)totalCount));
      Console.WriteLine("Total number of values: {0,10:N0}", 
                        totalCount);                  
   }

   private static void GenerateNumbers()
   {
      int midpoint = (UPPERBOUND - LOWERBOUND) / 2;
      int value = 0;
      int total = 0;
      int midpt = 0;

      do {
         lock (lockObj) {
            value = rnd.Next(LOWERBOUND, UPPERBOUND);
         }
         if (value == midpoint) { 
            Interlocked.Increment(ref midpointCount);
            midpt++;
         }
         total++;    
      } while (midpointCount < 10000);

      Interlocked.Add(ref totalCount, total);
      Interlocked.Add(ref totalMidpoint, midpt);

      string s = String.Format("Thread {0}:\n", Thread.CurrentThread.Name) +
                 String.Format("   Random Numbers: {0:N0}\n", total) + 
                 String.Format("   Midpoint values: {0:N0} ({1:P3})", midpt, 
                               ((double) midpt)/total);
      Console.WriteLine(s);
      cte.Signal();
   }
}
// The example displays output like the following:
//       Thread Thread2:
//          Random Numbers: 2,776,674
//          Midpoint values: 2,773 (0.100 %)
//       Thread Thread1:
//          Random Numbers: 4,876,100
//          Midpoint values: 4,873 (0.100 %)
//       Thread Thread0:
//          Random Numbers: 2,312,310
//          Midpoint values: 2,354 (0.102 %)
//       
//       Total midpoint values:      10,000 (0.100 %)
//       Total number of values:  9,965,084

The following example is similar to the previous one, except that it uses the Task class instead of a thread procedure to generate 50,000 random midpoint integers. In this example, a lambda expression replaces the GenerateNumbers thread procedure, and the call to the Task.WaitAll method eliminates the need for the CountdownEvent object.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

public class Example
{
   const int LOWERBOUND = 0;
   const int UPPERBOUND = 1001;

   static Object lockObj = new Object();
   static Random rnd = new Random();

   static int totalCount = 0;
   static int totalMidpoint = 0;
   static int midpointCount = 0;

   public static void Main()
   {
      List tasks = new List();
      // Start three tasks. 
      for (int ctr = 0; ctr <= 2; ctr++) 
         tasks.Add(Task.Run( () => { int midpoint = (UPPERBOUND - LOWERBOUND) / 2;
                                     int value = 0;
                                     int total = 0;
                                     int midpt = 0;

                                     do {
                                        lock (lockObj) {
                                           value = rnd.Next(LOWERBOUND, UPPERBOUND);
                                        }
                                        if (value == midpoint) { 
                                           Interlocked.Increment(ref midpointCount);
                                           midpt++;
                                        }
                                        total++;    
                                     } while (midpointCount < 50000);

                                     Interlocked.Add(ref totalCount, total);
                                     Interlocked.Add(ref totalMidpoint, midpt);

                                     string s = String.Format("Task {0}:\n", Task.CurrentId) +
                                                String.Format("   Random Numbers: {0:N0}\n", total) + 
                                                String.Format("   Midpoint values: {0:N0} ({1:P3})", midpt, 
                                                              ((double) midpt)/total);
                                     Console.WriteLine(s); } ));

      Task.WaitAll(tasks.ToArray());
      Console.WriteLine();
      Console.WriteLine("Total midpoint values:  {0,10:N0} ({1:P3})",
                        totalMidpoint, totalMidpoint/((double)totalCount));
      Console.WriteLine("Total number of values: {0,10:N0}", 
                        totalCount);                  
   }
}
// The example displays output like the following:
//       Task 3:
//          Random Numbers: 10,855,250
//          Midpoint values: 10,823 (0.100 %)
//       Task 1:
//          Random Numbers: 15,243,703
//          Midpoint values: 15,110 (0.099 %)
//       Task 2:
//          Random Numbers: 24,107,425
//          Midpoint values: 24,067 (0.100 %)
//       
//       Total midpoint values:      50,000 (0.100 %)
//       Total number of values: 50,206,378

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.threading.interlocked.increment?view=netcore-3.0