How to benchmark C# code using BenchmarkDotNet

In this article, I will explain How to benchmark C# code using BenchmarkDotNet

 

 BenchmarkDotNet is a lightweight, open-source, powerful .NET library that can transform your methods into benchmarks, track those methods, and then provide insights into the performance data captured.

 It is easy to write BenchmarkDotNet benchmarks and the results of the benchmarking process are user friendly as well.

 

Why benchmark code?

A benchmark is a measurement or a set of measurements related to the performance of a piece of code in an application. 

Benchmarking code is essential to understanding the performance metrics of the methods in your application. It is always a good approach to have the metrics at hand when you’re optimizing code. It is very important for us to know if the changes made in the code have improved or worsened the performance. 

Benchmarking also helps you to narrow in on the portions of the code in the application that needs refactoring.

Create a console application project in Visual Studio

First off, let’s create a .NET Core console application project in Visual Studio. Assuming Visual Studio 2019 is installed in your system, follow the steps outlined below to create a new .NET Core console application project in Visual Studio.

1. Launch the Visual Studio IDE.
2. Click on “Create a new project.”
3. In the “Create new project” window, select “Console App (.NET Core)” from the list of templates displayed.
4. Click Next.
5. In the “Configure your new project” window shown next, specify the name and location for the new project.
6. Click Create.

Install the BenchmarkDotNet NuGet package

To work with BenchmarkDotNet you must install the BenchmarkDotNet package. You can do this either via the NuGet Package Manager inside the Visual Studio 2019 IDE, or by executing the following command at the NuGet Package Manager Console:

Install-Package BenchmarkDotNet

Steps for benchmarking code using BenchmarkDotNet

To run BenchmarkDotNet in your .NET Framework or .NET Core application you must follow these steps:

1. Add the necessary NuGet package
2. Add Benchmark attributes to your methods
3. Create a BenchmarkRunner instance
4. Run the application in Release mode

Create a benchmarking class in .NET Core

Run the benchmark in your .NET Core application

If you run the application in debug mode, here’s the error message you’ll see:

Hence you should run your project in the release mode only. To run benchmarking, specify the following command at the Visual Studio command prompt.

dotnet run -p BenchmarkDotNetDemo.csproj -c Release

Analyze the benchmarking results

Once the execution of the benchmarking process is complete, a summary of the results will be displayed at the console window. The summary section contains information related to the environment in which the benchmarks were executed, such as the BenchmarkDotNet version, operating system, computer hardware, .NET version, compiler information, and information related to the performance of the application.

A few files will also be created in the BenchmarkDotNet.Artifacts folder under the application’s root folder. Here is a summary of the results. 

BenchmarkDotNet is a nice tool that provides a simple way to make an informed decision about the performance metrics of your application. In BenchmarkDotNet, invocation of a method that has the Benchmark attribute set is known as an operation. An iteration is a name given to a collection of several operations.

Happy programming!!

Don’t forget to leave your feedback and comments below!

Regards

Sujeet Bhujbal

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