Performance implications of boxing in C Sharp (C#) - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Performance Implications of Boxing in C#

📖 Scenario: Imagine you are working on a simple program that counts numbers and stores them in a list. You want to understand how storing numbers as objects (boxing) can affect the program's speed and memory.

🎯 Goal: You will create a list that stores integers as objects (boxing), then measure the time it takes to add numbers to this list. This will help you see how boxing can slow down your program.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a list of objects called boxedNumbers.

Create an integer variable called count and set it to 100000.

Use a for loop with variable i from 0 to count - 1 to add i to boxedNumbers (boxing happens here).

Use Stopwatch to measure the time taken to add numbers.

Print the elapsed time in milliseconds.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Boxing and unboxing happen often when working with collections that store objects, like old APIs or non-generic collections.

💼 Career

Understanding boxing helps you write faster and more memory-efficient C# programs, which is important for software developers working on performance-critical applications.

1

Create a list to store boxed integers

Create a list called boxedNumbers that can store objects.

C Sharp (C#)

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use List<object> to store boxed integers.

2

Set the count of numbers to add

Create an integer variable called count and set it to 100000.

C Sharp (C#)

using System.Collections.Generic;

List boxedNumbers = new List();

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use int count = 100000; to set the number of items.

3

Add numbers to the list with boxing and measure time

Use System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch to measure time. Start the stopwatch, then use a for loop with variable i from 0 to count - 1 to add i to boxedNumbers. Stop the stopwatch after the loop.

C Sharp (C#)

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;

List boxedNumbers = new List();

int count = 100000;

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Stopwatch to measure time and a for loop to add numbers.

4

Print the elapsed time

Print the elapsed time in milliseconds using Console.WriteLine and stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds.

C Sharp (C#)

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;

List boxedNumbers = new List();

int count = 100000;

Stopwatch stopwatch = new Stopwatch();
stopwatch.Start();
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
    boxedNumbers.Add(i); // boxing happens here
}
stopwatch.Stop();

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Console.WriteLine to show the elapsed time.