TOF : Split performance test - Xojo vs VB6

1

Surprising results (and disappointing)
The TOF post indictated VB6 rand the test in 50 seconds, and Xojo in 80.

I converted this to Swift

func test() {
    var sNewString : String
    var myTestString : String
    myTestString = "1230,345,456,6780,789,901,1240,346,457,5680,679,345,4560,678,789,9010,124,346,4570,568,679,"
    for _ in( 0 ... 10000000) {
        let sTagsArray = myTestString.components(separatedBy: ",")
        let kk = sTagsArray.count-1
        for j in(0...kk) {
            sNewString = sTagsArray[j]
        }
    }
}

and running in iOS on an IPhoneSE it took 163 seconds! :frowning:
running on a Mac (as an iPad app) it took 87 seconds

running under macOS natively it took 85 seconds.

I thought Swift would have been 10x faster at least

2

in the debugger or compiled & run on a device ?

3

compiled and run on the device

i expected on iPhone to be the slowest, but not by that much

4

huh - indeed I wouldn’t have expected that to be so slow

there has to nee some explanation for what that is

5 
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
function jsTest() {
    let startTime = new Date().getTime();
    
    let myTestString = "1230,345,456,6780,789,901,1240,346,457,5680,679,345,4560,678,789,9010,124,346,4570,568,679,";
    for (let i = 0; i <= 10000000; i++) {
        let sTagsArray = myTestString.split(",");
        let kk = sTagsArray.length;
        for (let j = 0; j < kk; j++) {
            let sNewString = sTagsArray[j];
        }
    }
    
    let endTime = new Date().getTime();
    console.log((endTime - startTime) / 1000);
}
jsTest();
</script>
</body>
</html>

Have I got that right?
< 8.5 seconds in Firefox running on a feeble mini PC with an Intel Atom processor.

2 Likes
6

So we’re taking a comma-delimited list of strings, turning it into a string array, and then accessing each element. But that’s a LOT of string allocations. In a real program you would probably address each element by index rather than making a copy of it, particularly if you’d only use it once inside the loop. So IMO this test is including a lot of pointless string allocation pressure. But maybe that’s on purpose, IDK.

My point being that depending on how Swift memory management works the real world performance of this kind of thing could likely be sped up quite a bit.

1 Like
7

“real world performance”… that is why I compiled and ran on a real device

8

If they’re comparing VB6, they’re probably running on WIntel. In general WIntel is faster than Apple Silicon, just nowhere near as efficient. Does anyone remember the days when Apple’s chips were inefficient and the switch to Intel was considered beneficial :slight_smile:

To make it a fair comparison run the test with Xojo on your Mac.

It probably was, until Xojo recently fixed a massive performance degradation.

9

Out of curiosity, I ran the equivalent through Delphi on a Mac M2, running Windows 10 Arm inside Parallels. I suspect Delphi’s TStringList object carries a fair overhead.

35s - Not remarkable in either direction, really, but …

1 Like
10

These are kind of a bad tests as heavily optimizing compiler could optimize loops away for code like this where assigned variable is not actually used and the end result is the same after each iteration.

11

The code could easily be optimised, both by the coder and the compiler.
The OP just wanted a like-for-like stress test.

It’s like saying ‘Hey, you 4 guys - cut my lawn with scissors’
Letting one of them use a lawnmower when the others aren’t watching, doesn’t tell you anything about how fast they use scissors, but yeah, it would get the real world job done faster.

12 
import time

start_time = time.time()

myTestString = "1230,345,456,6780,789,901,1240,346,457,5680,679,345,4560,678,789,9010,124,346,4570,568,679,"
i = 0
while i <= 10000000:
    sTagsArray = myTestString.split(",")
    kk = len(sTagsArray)
    j = 0
    while j < kk:
        sNewString = sTagsArray[j]
        j += 1
    i += 1
        
end_time = time.time()

print("total time taken: ", end_time - start_time)

PyPy 3.10
< 9 seconds
OS: MX Linux
CPU: Intel Celeron J4125 2.00 GHz
RAM: 8GB

1 Like
13

All of this shows up: Java 21 is much, much, much faster on macOS, Windows and Linux.

14

It seems to be taking a long time for you to show us the code. Is Java’s fugly, verbose syntax holding you up?

15

Of coarse. Or it is the quality.

16

Can you share your code here please?

17

Sure… I caveat this with ‘Opened Delphi for the first time in 25 years, about a week ago…’ :slight_smile:

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
   var MyTestString , OneField: String  ;
   var x,i: integer;
   var OutPutList:TStringlist;
   var f: string;


    MyTestString:= '1230,345,456,6780,789,901,1240,346,457,5680,679,345,4560,678,789,9010,124,346,4570,568,679,'  ;
    OutPutList := TStringList.Create;
    OutPutList.Delimiter:= ',';
    OutPutList.StrictDelimiter := True;
   //start timing here
   try

    for x:=0 to 10000000 do
    begin
      OutPutList.Clear;
      OutPutList.DelimitedText:= myTestString;  //unsure if this is needed to match original

      for i := 0 to OutPutList.count-1 do
      begin
            OneField:= OutPutList.Strings[i];

      end;

    end;

   finally
     OutPutList.Free;
   end;

   //get timing here
end;
2 Likes
18

Cause the exucution time is sooo long I tried on a MacbookAir 15". The execution time showed on the first picture is the execution time in Debil mode in Netbeans IDE. The second one shows the execution time started in JVM directly. OS: MACOS. Tested also but too lacy to write: Windows. Not slower.

image
image2314×2032 489 KB

image
image1408×894 98.7 KB

So Iran say Java does that Job within 4 until 5 seconds.

Running it builded with CN1 on IOS it runs 17 seconds and on Android 33 seconds. Only for information.

And there is no ugly syntax and no verbosity. I have no idea how people are speaking about that and in the same moment they start to discuss Xcode, C# and Swift. The Syntax is very close to Java and let me say it so: the others are not less verbose. I can’t understand the Idea behind the bashing of a language. Which is fast, reliable und nice.

19

Let me say: slow Python. Java is faster.

20

Less than five seconds for Java seems almost too fast. Are you sure Java does not optimize loops away or move something out of the loops? If that happens, it’s not benchmarking the same as compiler or interpreter that does not optimize code at all.