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For vs. For Each vs. While in C#

We check out how fast each of these loops can loop through an array and a list. Which one do you think will prevail?

Faisal Pathan user avatar by
Faisal Pathan
·
May. 09, 19 · Tutorial
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Introduction 

I am often asked by some people/colleagues, "which loop is faster?" "Which loop has higher performance?" Etc. I have heard that the For loop is faster than the For...each loop but I have never tried it before. So, I decided to see how big the difference is among all the loops and which one is faster at looping through an array and a list in terms of speed and performance.

Let's start our journey to fin the best C# loop. For this exercise, I'll be creating a console application in Visual Studio 2017.  

First, I'm going to create one class called CustomStopwatch which helps to track the starting and ending times of loops. 

using System;  
using System.Diagnostics;  

namespace ConsoleApp2  
{  
    public class CustomStopwatch : Stopwatch  
    {  

        public DateTime? StartAt { get; private set; }  
        public DateTime? EndAt { get; private set; }  


        public void Start()  
        {  
            StartAt = DateTime.Now;  

            base.Start();  
        }  

        public void Stop()  
        {  
            EndAt = DateTime.Now;  

            base.Stop();  
        }  

        public void Reset()  
        {  
            StartAt = null;  
            EndAt = null;  

            base.Reset();  
        }  

        public void Restart()  
        {  
            StartAt = DateTime.Now;  
            EndAt = null;  

            base.Restart();  
        }  

    }  
}  


Performance Of The Loops In C#

Custom stop watch code in C#

Now, it is time to write code in the Program.cs class. First, I'm going to implement a For loop on:

  • a single integer.
  • an array.
  • a list.
using System;  
using System.Linq;  

namespace ConsoleApp2  
{  
    class Program  
    {  
        static void Main(string[] args)  
        {  
            CustomStopwatch sw = new CustomStopwatch();  
            sw.Start();  
            for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++) Console.WriteLine(i);  
            sw.Stop();  

            CustomStopwatch sw1 = new CustomStopwatch();  
            int[] array = Enumerable.Range(0, 10000).ToArray();  
            sw1.Start();  
            for (int i = 0; i < array.Length; i++) Console.WriteLine(array[i]);  
            sw1.Stop();  

            CustomStopwatch sw2 = new CustomStopwatch();  
            var arrList = array.ToList();  
            sw2.Start();  
            for (int i = 0; i < arrList.Count; i++) Console.WriteLine(arrList[i]);  
            sw2.Stop();  

            Console.WriteLine($"for Time elapsed: {sw.ElapsedMilliseconds} Milliseconds, StartAt: {sw.StartAt.Value}, EndAt: {sw.EndAt.Value}");  
            Console.WriteLine($"for on array Time elapsed: {sw1.ElapsedMilliseconds} Milliseconds, StartAt: {sw1.StartAt.Value}, EndAt: {sw1.EndAt.Value}");  
            Console.WriteLine($"for on list Time elapsed: {sw2.ElapsedMilliseconds} Milliseconds, StartAt: {sw2.StartAt.Value}, EndAt: {sw2.EndAt.Value}");  
            Console.ReadKey();  
        }  

    }  
}  


Performance Of The Loops In C#

For Loop Test


Let's run the script to see output and execution time in milliseconds.

Performance Of The Loops In C#

For Loop Performance

As per my output, the For loop on the list is faster.  

Let's compare the For...each loop on the list and array.

using System;  
using System.Linq;  

namespace ConsoleApp2  
{  
    class Program  
    {  
        static void Main(string[] args)  
        {  
            int[] array = Enumerable.Range(0, 10000).ToArray();  
            var arrList = array.ToList();  

            CustomStopwatch sw1 = new CustomStopwatch();  
            sw1.Start();  
            foreach (var arr in array) Console.WriteLine(arr);  
            sw1.Stop();  

            CustomStopwatch sw2 = new CustomStopwatch();  
            sw2.Start();  
            foreach (var arr in arrList) Console.WriteLine(arr);  
            sw2.Stop();  

            Console.Clear();  
            Console.WriteLine($"for each on array Time elapsed: {sw1.ElapsedMilliseconds} Milliseconds, StartAt: {sw1.StartAt.Value}, EndAt: {sw1.EndAt.Value}");  
            Console.WriteLine($"for each on list Time elapsed: {sw2.ElapsedMilliseconds} Milliseconds, StartAt: {sw2.StartAt.Value}, EndAt: {sw2.EndAt.Value}");  
            Console.ReadKey();  
        }  
    }  
}  


Performance Of The Loops In C#

For...Each Loop


Let's run to see output and execution time in milliseconds.  

Performance Of The Loops In C#

For...Each Loop Performance


Here, the For...each loop on the list is faster. 

Let's compare the While loop on the list and an array.

using System;  
using System.Linq;  

namespace ConsoleApp2  
{  
    class Program  
    {  
        static void Main(string[] args)  
        {  
            int[] array = Enumerable.Range(0, 10000).ToArray();  
            var arrList = array.ToList();  

            CustomStopwatch sw1 = new CustomStopwatch();  
            sw1.Start();  
            int i = 0;  
            while (i != array.Length) Console.WriteLine(array[i++]);  
            sw1.Stop();  

            CustomStopwatch sw2 = new CustomStopwatch();  
            sw2.Start();  
            i = 0;  
            while (i != arrList.Count) Console.WriteLine(arrList[i++]);  
            sw2.Stop();  

            Console.Clear();  
            Console.WriteLine($"while on array Time elapsed: {sw1.ElapsedMilliseconds} Milliseconds, StartAt: {sw1.StartAt.Value}, EndAt: {sw1.EndAt.Value}");  
            Console.WriteLine($"while on list Time elapsed: {sw2.ElapsedMilliseconds} Milliseconds, StartAt: {sw2.StartAt.Value}, EndAt: {sw2.EndAt.Value}");  
            Console.ReadKey();  
        }  
    }  
}  


Performance Of The Loops In C#

While Loop


And the output of While loop is as below.  

Performance Of The Loops In C#

While Loop Performance


The While loop is faster at looping through the list.  

Conclusion  

This article covered a quick comparison of For, For...each, and While loops on arrays and lists. As I said before, an array is faster than a list, but, as per my observation (in terms of iteration), a list is faster, as we can see in the outputs. I think it depends on the data and the way you use the data. My personal suggestion is that we should use a list instead of an array for the below reasons.

  • In an array, we need to know the array's size, and we can't change the array's size (we have the Resize() method but it will change the reference) where a list can grow after it's created.
  • In a list, we don't need to worry about the list's size or  an 'index out of bounds' exception.
  • A list provides lots of helpful methods like Add, Find, etc.
  • Lists are easy to read. 

Please give your valuable feedback/comments/questions about this article below. Please let me know how you like and understand this article and how I could improve it.

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