Large static arrays are slowing down class load, need a better/faster lookup method
- by Visualize
I have a class with a couple static arrays:
an int[] with 17,720 elements
a string[] with 17,720 elements
I noticed when I first access this class it takes almost 2 seconds to initialize, which causes a pause in the GUI that's accessing it.
Specifically, it's a lookup for Unicode character names. The first array is an index into the second array.
static readonly int[] NAME_INDEX = {
0x0000, 0x0001, 0x0005, 0x002C, 0x003B, ...
static readonly string[] NAMES = {
"Exclamation Mark", "Digit Three", "Semicolon", "Question Mark", ...
The following code is how the arrays are used (given a character code). [Note: This code isn't a performance problem]
int nameIndex = Array.BinarySearch<int>(NAME_INDEX, code);
if (nameIndex > 0)
{
return NAMES[nameIndex];
}
I guess I'm looking at other options on how to structure the data so that 1) The class is quickly loaded, and 2) I can quickly get the "name" for a given character code.
Should I not be storing all these thousands of elements in static arrays?
