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Ivan G
Ivan G

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.NET: XmlReader vs Linq to XML Performance

Trying to squeeze out some performance from XML parser, I've performed a few tests to compare XmlReader and XElement in C#. The results are below:

Method EntryCount Mean Error StdDev Gen 0 Gen 1 Gen 2 Allocated
XmlReader 10 22.71 μs 13.99 μs 0.767 μs 3.8757 0.1221 - 15.94 KB
Linq 10 31.69 μs 17.07 μs 0.936 μs 4.9438 - - 20.38 KB
XmlReader 100 201.16 μs 91.83 μs 5.033 μs 13.1836 1.7090 - 53.92 KB
Linq 100 262.43 μs 117.71 μs 6.452 μs 22.4609 5.3711 - 92.08 KB
XmlReader 1000 1,957.26 μs 487.94 μs 26.745 μs 70.3125 35.1563 - 427.13 KB
Linq 1000 2,760.14 μs 1,338.66 μs 73.376 μs 128.9063 62.5000 - 802.53 KB
XmlReader 10000 26,045.06 μs 7,497.77 μs 410.978 μs 750.0000 312.5000 93.7500 4261.65 KB
Linq 10000 37,641.87 μs 22,644.42 μs 1,241.217 μs 1375.0000 562.5000 187.5000 8008.76 KB
XmlReader 100000 267,986.78 μs 226,860.08 μs 12,434.967 μs 7000.0000 2500.0000 500.0000 41974.41 KB
Linq 100000 338,254.50 μs 84,972.74 μs 4,657.643 μs 13000.0000 5000.0000 1000.0000 79473.88 KB

Summary: XmlReader is always more efficient, both in terms of memory consumption and raw CPU cycles. No matter the document is big or small. Even with 10 elements, the performance gain is massive.

Full testing code here:

#LINQPad optimize+

static string xml = @"<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""UTF-8""?>
<ListBucketResult>
    <Name>algresearch</Name>
    <Prefix/>
    <KeyCount>5</KeyCount>
    <MaxKeys>1000</MaxKeys>
    <IsTruncated>false</IsTruncated>
    @c

</ListBucketResult>

";

static string contents = @"<Contents>
        <Key>11d247ec-ca73-4ab9-a8ff-a5ffc446f8a4</Key>
        <LastModified>2021-02-25T10:29:26.000Z</LastModified>
        <ETag>&quot;5cc7bdc9132074539612aacde94d39ae&quot;</ETag>
        <Size>15</Size>
        <StorageClass>STANDARD</StorageClass>
    </Contents>";

void Main()
{
    Util.AutoScrollResults = true;
    BenchmarkRunner.Run<ParseBenchmark>();
}

public class IOEntry
{
    public IOEntry(string key)
    {
        Key = key;
    }

    public string Key { get; private set; }

    public DateTimeOffset? LastModificationTime { get; set; }

    public int Size { get; set; }

    public string ETag { get; set; }

    public string StorageClass { get; set; }
}

[ShortRunJob]
[MarkdownExporter]
//[SimpleJob]
//[RPlotExporter]
[MemoryDiagnoser]
//[DisassemblyDiagnoser]
public class ParseBenchmark
{
    public IReadOnlyCollection<IOEntry> ParseWithXmlReader(string xml, out string continuationToken)
    {
        continuationToken = null;
        var result = new List<IOEntry>();
        using (var sr = new StringReader(xml))
        {
            using (var xr = System.Xml.XmlReader.Create(sr))
            {
                while (xr.Read())
                {
                    if (xr.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element)
                    {
                        switch (xr.Name)
                        {
                            case "NextContinuationToken":
                                break;
                            case "Contents":
                                string key = null;
                                string lastMod = null;
                                string eTag = null;
                                string size = null;
                                string storageClass = null;
                                // read all the elements in this
                                string en = null;
                                while (xr.Read() && !(xr.NodeType == XmlNodeType.EndElement && xr.Name == "Contents"))
                                {
                                    if (xr.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element)
                                        en = xr.Name;
                                    else if (xr.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Text)
                                    {
                                        switch (en)
                                        {
                                            case "Key":
                                                key = xr.Value;
                                                break;
                                            case "LastModified":
                                                lastMod = xr.Value;
                                                break;
                                            case "ETag":
                                                eTag = xr.Value;
                                                break;
                                            case "Size":
                                                size = xr.Value;
                                                break;
                                            case "StorageClass":
                                                storageClass = xr.Value;
                                                break;
                                        }
                                    }
                                }

                                if (key != null)
                                {
                                    var entry = new IOEntry(key)
                                    {
                                        LastModificationTime = DateTimeOffset.Parse(lastMod),
                                        Size = int.Parse(size),
                                        ETag = eTag,
                                        StorageClass = storageClass
                                    };
                                    result.Add(entry);
                                }

                                break;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        return result;
    }

    public IReadOnlyCollection<IOEntry> ParseWithXElement(string xml, out string continuationToken)
    {
        continuationToken = null;
        var result = new List<IOEntry>();

        XElement x = XElement.Parse(xml);
        continuationToken = x.Element("NextContinuationToken")?.Value;

        foreach(XElement c in x.Elements("Contents"))
        {
            var entry = new IOEntry(c.Element("Key").Value)
            {
                LastModificationTime = DateTimeOffset.Parse(c.Element("LastModified")?.Value),
                Size = int.Parse(c.Element("Size")?.Value),
                ETag = c.Element("ETag")?.Value,
                StorageClass = c.Element("StorageClass")?.Value
            };
            result.Add(entry);
        }

        return result;
    }

    private string _xml;

    [Params(10, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000)]
    public int EntryCount;

    [GlobalSetup]
    public void Setup()
    {
        var sb = new StringBuilder();
        for(int i = 0; i < EntryCount; i++)
        {
            sb.Append(contents);
        }

        _xml = xml.Replace("@c", sb.ToString());
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public IReadOnlyCollection<IOEntry> XmlReader()
    {
        return ParseWithXmlReader(_xml, out _);
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public IReadOnlyCollection<IOEntry> Linq()
    {
        return ParseWithXElement(_xml, out _);
    }

}

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P.S. Originally published on my blog.

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