String Concatenation in VB.NET

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YGeek - 29 Jun 2004 23:06 GMT

Is there a performance issue with using & to do string concatenation versus using the String.Concat method? What is the best practice for doing string concatenation in VB.NET?

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AlexS - 29 Jun 2004 23:29 GMT

Hi, YGeek

Both are same in terms of memory and processor use. And both are
sub-efficient. It is not recommended to use concatenation in loops and
frequently.
The fastest and most efficient way to combine strings is with StringBuilder.

HTH
Alex

> Is there a performance issue with using & to do string concatenation versus using the String.Concat method? What is the best practice for doing

string concatenation in VB.NET?

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Michael Pearson - 30 Jun 2004 00:04 GMT

I second what Alex Says.
If I've got to concatinate two small strings, I usually just use &.
If I'm building a large string in a loop, System.Text.StringBuilder (I think
that's the right namespace) is the way to go by FAR.

Michael

> Hi, YGeek
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> versus using the String.Concat method? What is the best practice for doing
> string concatenation in VB.NET?

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Henning Krause - 30 Jun 2004 07:21 GMT

Hello,

if you just concat two strings, you can safely use &.
If you concat more than two strings it is more performant to use
string.Concat.

In a loop, use the StringBuilder.

Greetings,
Henning Krause
==========================
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> I second what Alex Says.
> If I've got to concatinate two small strings, I usually just use &.
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> doing
> > string concatenation in VB.NET?

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Jon Skeet [C# MVP] - 30 Jun 2004 08:21 GMT

> if you just concat two strings, you can safely use &.
> If you concat more than two strings it is more performant to use
> string.Concat.

I believe & just uses Concat under the hood anyway, doesn't it?

Note that string literals will be concatenated by the compiler anyway,
so "x" & "y" is exactly the same as "xy".

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Sriram Krishnan - 17 Jul 2004 15:28 GMT

See Rico Mariani's post on the subject
http://weblogs.asp.net/ricom/posts/40778.aspx

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Sriram Krishnan
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> > if you just concat two strings, you can safely use &.
> > If you concat more than two strings it is more performant to use
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> Note that string literals will be concatenated by the compiler anyway,
> so "x" & "y" is exactly the same as "xy".

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Jon Skeet [C# MVP] - 17 Jul 2004 18:35 GMT

> See Rico Mariani's post on the subject
> http://weblogs.asp.net/ricom/posts/40778.aspx

That post only talks about adding to an existing string. It doesn't say
anything about the case of

string x = y + z;

(or x = y & z in VB.NET) which is what I was talking about in my post.

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String Concatenation in VB.NET

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