Performance Benchmarking of Contains, Exists and Any

According to documentation:

List.Exists (Object method)

Determines whether the List(T) contains elements that match the conditions defined by the specified predicate.

IEnumerable.Any (Extension method)

Determines whether any element of a sequence satisfies a condition.

List.Contains (Object Method)

Determines whether an element is in the List.

Benchmarking:

CODE:

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        ContainsExistsAnyShort();

        ContainsExistsAny();
    }
    
    private static void ContainsExistsAny()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("***************************************");
        Console.WriteLine("********* ContainsExistsAny ***********");
        Console.WriteLine("***************************************");

        List<int> list = new List<int>(6000000);
        Random random = new Random();
        for (int i = 0; i < 6000000; i++)
        {
            list.Add(random.Next(6000000));
        }
        int[] arr = list.ToArray();

        find(list, arr);
    }

    private static void ContainsExistsAnyShort()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("***************************************");
        Console.WriteLine("***** ContainsExistsAnyShortRange *****");
        Console.WriteLine("***************************************");

        List<int> list = new List<int>(2000);
        Random random = new Random();
        for (int i = 0; i < 2000; i++)
        {
            list.Add(random.Next(6000000));
        }
        int[] arr = list.ToArray();

        find(list, arr);
    }

    private static void find(List<int> list, int[] arr)
    {
        Random random = new Random();
        int[] find = new int[10000];
        for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++)
        {
            find[i] = random.Next(6000000);
        }

        Stopwatch watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
        for (int rpt = 0; rpt < 10000; rpt++)
        {
            list.Contains(find[rpt]);
        }
        watch.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine("List/Contains: {0:N0}ms", watch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

        watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
        for (int rpt = 0; rpt < 10000; rpt++)
        {
            list.Exists(a => a == find[rpt]);
        }
        watch.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine("List/Exists: {0:N0}ms", watch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

        watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
        for (int rpt = 0; rpt < 10000; rpt++)
        {
            list.Any(a => a == find[rpt]);
        }
        watch.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine("List/Any: {0:N0}ms", watch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

        watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
        for (int rpt = 0; rpt < 10000; rpt++)
        {
            arr.Contains(find[rpt]);
        }
        watch.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine("Array/Contains: {0:N0}ms", watch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

        Console.WriteLine("Arrays do not have Exists");

        watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
        for (int rpt = 0; rpt < 10000; rpt++)
        {
            arr.Any(a => a == find[rpt]);
        }
        watch.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine("Array/Any: {0:N0}ms", watch.ElapsedMilliseconds);
    }

RESULTS

***************************************
***** ContainsExistsAnyShortRange *****
***************************************
List/Contains: 96ms
List/Exists: 146ms
List/Any: 381ms
Array/Contains: 34ms
Arrays do not have Exists
Array/Any: 410ms
***************************************
********* ContainsExistsAny ***********
***************************************
List/Contains: 257,996ms
List/Exists: 379,951ms
List/Any: 884,853ms
Array/Contains: 72,486ms
Arrays do not have Exists
Array/Any: 1,013,303ms

The fastest way is to use a HashSet. The Contains for a HashSet is O(1).

I took your code and added a benchmark for HashSet<int> The performance cost of HashSet<int> set = new HashSet<int>(list); is nearly zero.

Code

void Main()
{
    ContainsExistsAnyVeryShort();
    
    ContainsExistsAnyShort();

    ContainsExistsAny();
}

private static void ContainsExistsAny()
{
    Console.WriteLine("***************************************");
    Console.WriteLine("********* ContainsExistsAny ***********");
    Console.WriteLine("***************************************");

    List<int> list = new List<int>(6000000);
    Random random = new Random();
    for (int i = 0; i < 6000000; i++)
    {
        list.Add(random.Next(6000000));
    }
    int[] arr = list.ToArray();
    HashSet<int> set = new HashSet<int>(list);

    find(list, arr, set, (method, stopwatch) => $"{method}: {stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds}ms");

}

private static void ContainsExistsAnyShort()
{
    Console.WriteLine("***************************************");
    Console.WriteLine("***** ContainsExistsAnyShortRange *****");
    Console.WriteLine("***************************************");

    List<int> list = new List<int>(2000);
    Random random = new Random();
    for (int i = 0; i < 2000; i++)
    {
        list.Add(random.Next(6000000));
    }
    int[] arr = list.ToArray();
    HashSet<int> set = new HashSet<int>(list);

    find(list, arr, set, (method, stopwatch) => $"{method}: {stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds}ms");

}

private static void ContainsExistsAnyVeryShort()
{
    Console.WriteLine("*******************************************");
    Console.WriteLine("***** ContainsExistsAnyVeryShortRange *****");
    Console.WriteLine("*******************************************");

    List<int> list = new List<int>(10);
    Random random = new Random();
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
    {
        list.Add(random.Next(6000000));
    }
    int[] arr = list.ToArray();
    HashSet<int> set = new HashSet<int>(list);

    find(list, arr, set, (method, stopwatch) => $"{method}: {stopwatch.ElapsedTicks} ticks");

}

private static void find(List<int> list, int[] arr, HashSet<int> set, Func<string, Stopwatch, string> format)
{
    Random random = new Random();
    int[] find = new int[10000];
    for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++)
    {
        find[i] = random.Next(6000000);
    }

    Stopwatch watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    for (int rpt = 0; rpt < 10000; rpt++)
    {
        list.Contains(find[rpt]);
    }
    watch.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine(format("List/Contains", watch));

    watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    for (int rpt = 0; rpt < 10000; rpt++)
    {
        list.Exists(a => a == find[rpt]);
    }
    watch.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine(format("List/Exists", watch));

    watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    for (int rpt = 0; rpt < 10000; rpt++)
    {
        list.Any(a => a == find[rpt]);
    }
    watch.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine(format("List/Any", watch));

    watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    for (int rpt = 0; rpt < 10000; rpt++)
    {
        arr.Contains(find[rpt]);
    }
    watch.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine(format("Array/Contains", watch));

    watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    for (int rpt = 0; rpt < 10000; rpt++)
    {
        Array.Exists(arr, a => a == find[rpt]);
    }
    watch.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine(format("Array/Exists", watch));

    watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    for (int rpt = 0; rpt < 10000; rpt++)
    {
        Array.IndexOf(arr, find[rpt]);
    }
    watch.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine(format("Array/IndexOf", watch));

    watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    for (int rpt = 0; rpt < 10000; rpt++)
    {
        arr.Any(a => a == find[rpt]);
    }
    watch.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine(format("Array/Any", watch));

    watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    for (int rpt = 0; rpt < 10000; rpt++)
    {
        set.Contains(find[rpt]);
    }
    watch.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine(format("HashSet/Contains", watch));
}

RESULTS

*******************************************
***** ContainsExistsAnyVeryShortRange *****
*******************************************
List/Contains: 1067 ticks
List/Exists: 2884 ticks
List/Any: 10520 ticks
Array/Contains: 1880 ticks
Array/Exists: 5526 ticks
Array/IndexOf: 601 ticks
Array/Any: 13295 ticks
HashSet/Contains: 6629 ticks
***************************************
***** ContainsExistsAnyShortRange *****
***************************************
List/Contains: 4ms
List/Exists: 28ms
List/Any: 138ms
Array/Contains: 6ms
Array/Exists: 34ms
Array/IndexOf: 3ms
Array/Any: 96ms
HashSet/Contains: 0ms
***************************************
********* ContainsExistsAny ***********
***************************************
List/Contains: 11504ms
List/Exists: 57084ms
List/Any: 257659ms
Array/Contains: 11643ms
Array/Exists: 52477ms
Array/IndexOf: 11741ms
Array/Any: 194184ms
HashSet/Contains: 3ms

Edit (2021-08-25)

I added a comparison for very short collections (10 items) and also added Array.Contains and Array.IndexOf. You can see that Array.IndexOf is the fastest for such small ranges. That is, because as @lucky-brian said n is so small here, that a for-loop performs better than a somewhat complex search algorithm. However I still advice to use HashSet<T> whenever possible, as it better reflects the intend of only having unique values and the difference for small collections is below 1ms.

Performance Benchmarking of Contains, Exists and Any

Code

RESULTS

Edit (2021-08-25)

Tags:

C#

Performance

Benchmarking

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