It just happens to me about one code design question. Say, I have one "template" method that invokes some functions that may "alter". A intuitive design is to follow "Template Design Pattern". Define the altering functions to be "virtual" functions to be overridden in subclasses. Or, I can just use delegate functions without "virtual". The delegate functions is injected so that they can be customized too.
Originally, I thought the second "delegate" way would be faster than "virtual" way, but some coding snippet proves it is not correct.
In below code, the first DoSomething method follows "template pattern". It calls on the virtual method IsTokenChar. The second DoSomthing method doesn't depend on virtual function. Instead, it has a pass-in delegate. In my computer, the first DoSomthing is always faster than the second. The result is like 1645:1780.
"Virtual invocation" is dynamic binding and should be more time-costing than direct delegation invocation, right? but the result shows it is not.
Anybody can explain this?
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
class Foo
{
public virtual bool IsTokenChar(string word)
{
return String.IsNullOrEmpty(word);
}
// this is a template method
public int DoSomething(string word)
{
int trueCount = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < repeat; ++i)
{
if (IsTokenChar(word))
{
++trueCount;
}
}
return trueCount;
}
public int DoSomething(Predicate<string> predicator, string word)
{
int trueCount = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < repeat; ++i)
{
if (predicator(word))
{
++trueCount;
}
}
return trueCount;
}
private int repeat = 200000000;
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Foo f = new Foo();
{
Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
f.DoSomething(null);
sw.Stop();
Console.WriteLine(sw.ElapsedMilliseconds);
}
{
Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
f.DoSomething(str => String.IsNullOrEmpty(str), null);
sw.Stop();
Console.WriteLine(sw.ElapsedMilliseconds);
}
}
}