Useful Performance Tips For C#

I was reading MSDN the other day and came across some performance tips that I thought were pretty useful to keep in mind while programming for future projects. Below are the tips that I thought were useful and would be nice to share with others.

1. Use finally in your try {} catch {} statements to ensure resource deallocation.
2. Treat threads as a shared resource and use the optimized .NET thread pool when possible.
3. Use the server garbage collector for server based multi-CPU environments.
4. Avoid string concatenation with +=
5. Use the using(obj) short hand to simplify coding. using() is the same as try{}finally{obj.Dispose(); } and insures that obj is disposed of after use.
6. Use thread pool when using threads.
   

   ---

   
   WaitCallback methTarget = new WaitCallback(myClass.Method);
   ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(methTarget);
   

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7. Use StringBuilder for string concatenation; avoid using + to concatenate strings
8. If interacting with collections from multiple threads, you must make the collection thread safe.
   

   ---

   
   ArrayList myAr = new ArrayList();
   ArrayList mySyncedAr = ArrayList.Synchronized(myAr);
   
   // To use collection from thread:
   lock(myCollection.SyncRoot);
   { // do work here }
   

   ---

9. Initialize collection sizes at startup to speed up node creation

Well I hope that helps some of you. I know I'll write more efficient code using these rules. :)