MID Take two

[Jay King]

Mid function I dreamed up for .Net

Very slow as far as I can tell lol

Ok what am I doing wrong?
Private Function sMid(ByVal Str As String, ByVal Position As Int32, ByVal
Length As Int32) As String

Dim b() As Byte

Dim s As String

Dim h As New System.Text.ASCIIEncoding()

b = h.ASCII.GetBytes(Str)

Dim x As Int32

Dim ch As Char

Dim sb As StringBuilder

Position = Position - 1

For x = Position To ((Position + (Length)) - 1)

s = s & Chr(b.GetValue(x))

Next

Return s

End Function

[Phil Weber]

> Ok what am I doing wrong?

Jay: I'd say this is your problem:

s = s & Chr(b.GetValue(x))

It would be much more efficient to use the StringBuilder's .Append method.
It would be even more efficient to use the String's .CopyTo method to copy
the desired characters in a single operation. Or simply use .SubString,
which I suspect is what VB.NET does under the hood:

Private Function sMid(ByVal Str As String, ByVal Position As Int32, _
ByVal Length As Int32) As String
Return Str.Substring(Position, Length)
End Function

--
Phil Weber

[Jason Sobell iGadget]

Hi,
If you need to get access at a char level (not byte) your example can be
rewritten as
Private Function sMid2(ByVal Str As String, ByVal Position As Int32, ByVal ByValLength As Int32) As String
Return New String(Str.ToCharArray(Position - 1, ByValLength))
End Function

This is much faster than the code you posted, but nowhere near the built-in
Mid() or SubString() functions.

Here are some timings for 1 million iterations of
ret = sMid("This is a test", 7, 4) = 2.60 secs
ret = Mid$("This is a test", 7, 4) = 0.09 secs
ret = "This is a test".Substring(7, 4)
ret = sMid2("This is a test", 7, 4) = 0.40 secs

Using a longer string exasperates the problems of user defined versions:
ret = sMid("This is a test, this is a test, and this is a test, and this is a test ", 17, 14) = 8.36 secs
ret = Mid$("This is a test, this is a test, and this is a test, and this is a test ", 17, 14) = 0.12 secs
ret = "This is a test, this is a test, and this is a test, and this is a test ".Substring(17, 14) = 0.12 secs
ret = sMid2("This is a test, this is a test, and this is a test, and this is a test ", 17, 14) = 0.46 secs
ret = New String("This is a test, this is a test, and this is a test, and this is a test ".ToCharArray(17 - 1, 14)) = 0.46 secs

As you can see, the loop in your code increases processing time in
proportion to the length of the substring being requested, but nothing
comes close to the built-in framework functions.

Cheers,
Jason



On Sat, 25 Jan 2003 08:27:22 -0500, Jay King wrote:

> Mid function I dreamed up for .Net
>
> Very slow as far as I can tell lol
>
> Ok what am I doing wrong?
> Private Function sMid(ByVal Str As String, ByVal Position As Int32, ByVal
> Length As Int32) As String
>
> Dim b() As Byte
>
> Dim s As String
>
> Dim h As New System.Text.ASCIIEncoding()
>
> b = h.ASCII.GetBytes(Str)
>
> Dim x As Int32
>
> Dim ch As Char
>
> Dim sb As StringBuilder
>
> Position = Position - 1
>
> For x = Position To ((Position + (Length)) - 1)
>
> s = s & Chr(b.GetValue(x))
>
> Next
>
> Return s
>
> End Function

[Dave]

"Phil Weber" <pweber@nospam.fawcette.com> wrote:
> Private Function sMid(ByVal Str As String, ByVal Position As Int32,
_
> ByVal Length As Int32) As String
> Return Str.Substring(Position, Length)
> End Function
>

Sorry for being petty, but you'd have to use "Str.Substring(Position - 1,
Length)" since Substring (like everything else truely .NET) uses geeky 0-basing.
(but it's not faster anyway)

So if you want to start at what we humans regard as the 3rd position in the
string, you actually have to suspend common sense and specify the 2nd.

Geek Olympics:
0th place: gold
1st place: silver
2nd place: bronze

Geek Career Counselling:
"Don't jump at the 0th job that comes along"

Geek Stubborness:
"If at 0th you don't succeed, try, try again"

[Jay King]

How would I use append to attach two strings...


"Phil Weber" <pweber@nospam.fawcette.com> wrote in message
news:3e329ecb$1@tnews.web.devx.com...
| > Ok what am I doing wrong?
|
| Jay: I'd say this is your problem:
|
| s = s & Chr(b.GetValue(x))
|
| It would be much more efficient to use the StringBuilder's .Append method.
| It would be even more efficient to use the String's .CopyTo method to copy
| the desired characters in a single operation. Or simply use .SubString,
| which I suspect is what VB.NET does under the hood:
|
| Private Function sMid(ByVal Str As String, ByVal Position As Int32, _
| ByVal Length As Int32) As String
| Return Str.Substring(Position, Length)
| End Function
|
| --
| Phil Weber
|
|

[Phil Weber]

> How would I use append to attach two strings?

Jay:

sb.Append(String1)
sb.Append(String2)

--
Phil Weber

[Mike Mitchell]

On Sat, 25 Jan 2003 08:56:59 -0800, "Phil Weber"
<pweber@nospam.fawcette.com> wrote:

> > How would I use append to attach two strings?
>
>Jay:
>
> sb.Append(String1)
> sb.Append(String2)

Isn't it more efficient the classic VB way?

E.g. MyString = MyString & String1 & String2

The classic VB way is a lot more readable than having to use that
Append method on each string to be concatenated.

MM

[Phil Weber]

> Isn't it more efficient the classic VB way?

Mike: No. Try timing your concatenation code against Karl Peterson's
CStringBuilder class: http://www.mvps.org/vb/code/StrBldr.zip
--
Phil Weber

[Gary Nelson]

Jay,

There is no need for a substitute for the Mid function, it works fine. The
problem is with the mid statement. That is to say, the one that substitutes
a series of characters for another series of characters within a string.

Gary


> Mid function I dreamed up for .Net
>
> Very slow as far as I can tell lol
>
> Ok what am I doing wrong?
> Private Function sMid(ByVal Str As String, ByVal Position As Int32, ByVal
> Length As Int32) As String
>
> Dim b() As Byte
>
> Dim s As String
>
> Dim h As New System.Text.ASCIIEncoding()
>
> b = h.ASCII.GetBytes(Str)
>
> Dim x As Int32
>
> Dim ch As Char
>
> Dim sb As StringBuilder
>
> Position = Position - 1
>
> For x = Position To ((Position + (Length)) - 1)
>
> s = s & Chr(b.GetValue(x))
>
> Next
>
> Return s
>
> End Function
>
>

[Patrice Scribe]

It looks like you are just extracting a string. The problem in .NET is
actually with *updating* strings. Each time you are updating a string, you
actually create a brand new string. A StringBuilder may solve this by
working directly on a string buffer that is allocated one time only for all
these updates...

Patrice

"Jay King" <nemopsj@aol.com> a écrit dans le message de news:
3e328d91$1@tnews.web.devx.com...
> Mid function I dreamed up for .Net
>
> Very slow as far as I can tell lol
>
> Ok what am I doing wrong?
> Private Function sMid(ByVal Str As String, ByVal Position As Int32, ByVal
> Length As Int32) As String
>
> Dim b() As Byte
>
> Dim s As String
>
> Dim h As New System.Text.ASCIIEncoding()
>
> b = h.ASCII.GetBytes(Str)
>
> Dim x As Int32
>
> Dim ch As Char
>
> Dim sb As StringBuilder
>
> Position = Position - 1
>
> For x = Position To ((Position + (Length)) - 1)
>
> s = s & Chr(b.GetValue(x))
>
> Next
>
> Return s
>
> End Function
>
>

[Eddie Burdak]

Mike,

Mike Mitchell wrote:
>> On Sat, 25 Jan 2003 08:56:59 -0800, "Phil Weber"
>> <pweber@nospam.fawcette.com> wrote:
>>
>>>> How would I use append to attach two strings?
>>>
>>> Jay:
>>>
>>> sb.Append(String1)
>>> sb.Append(String2)
>>
>> Isn't it more efficient the classic VB way?
>>
>> E.g. MyString = MyString & String1 & String2
>>

Depends on the size of the string. If you have large strings then it
is painfully slow. Instead you can ovsersize Mystring and start using
Instr to insert String1 and String2. The performance is improved
greatly then - but readability can suffer.

Eddie

[Mike Mitchell]

On Tue, 28 Jan 2003 08:30:09 +0100, "Eddie Burdak"
<eburdak@pilatus-aircraft.com> wrote:

>Depends on the size of the string. If you have large strings then it
>is painfully slow. Instead you can ovsersize Mystring and start using
>Instr to insert String1 and String2. The performance is improved
>greatly then - but readability can suffer.

Absolutely, Eddie. But in my experience of writing business-type apps
most strings are quite short - names, addresses, parts, descriptions,
invoice details and so on. I don't agree (a) that strings should be
immutable and (b) that strings should be objects.

MM

[Tom Shelton]

"Mike Mitchell" <kylix_is@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:4kdd3v0bd237hamsq13i09rfqrifsjju0k@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 28 Jan 2003 08:30:09 +0100, "Eddie Burdak"
> <eburdak@pilatus-aircraft.com> wrote:
>
> >Depends on the size of the string. If you have large strings then it
> >is painfully slow. Instead you can ovsersize Mystring and start using
> >Instr to insert String1 and String2. The performance is improved
> >greatly then - but readability can suffer.
>
> Absolutely, Eddie. But in my experience of writing business-type apps
> most strings are quite short - names, addresses, parts, descriptions,
> invoice details and so on. I don't agree (a) that strings should be
> immutable and (b) that strings should be objects.

First, that may be your experience - but not everyone has the same so it is
good to be aware of the limitations of VB.CLASSIC string handling and have
techniques for working around them. As for your other 2 disagreements - B)
is a matter of religion, and so I'm not going to try to convince you
otherwise, but there are very good reasons for A. Because the compiler
knows that a string can not be changed, it is possible to make storage
optimizations that are not possible for mutable strings - things like
interning. It does cause opertions that modify strings to suffer - since it
requires a new allocation with operation - but those are the cases that
StringBuilder was ment for (StringBuffer in java).

Tom Shelton