2 replies

1. 

   First of all, the sigils are freaking me out.

   Secondly, I ran your test and got:

   String.replace (" ", "  "); // 4
   String.replace (/[ ]/ig, "  "); // 85
   HTMLFormat.space (n); // 26
   String (HTMLFormat.space (n)); // 27
   HTMLFormat.space (n) as String; // 27
   "  " // 5
   String ("  "); // 7
   ("  ") as String; // 7
   String.split (" ").join ("  "); // 86

   With an HTMLFormat.space() of my own recreation:

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

   public static function space(n:int): String { var str:String = ""; for (var i:int = 0; i < n; ++i) { str += "&nbsp;"; } return str; }

   So I’m seeing similar results. But I have two issues:

   1) The HTMLFormat.space() tests are on building a new string every time but the String.replace() is working on the same string each iteration of the loop. Further, the String.replace() will do its job on the first iteration, but then the next 9999 iterations require no actual replaces.

   2) The String.replace() method is only for when you know the number of spaces you want at compile time, not at runtime as with the variable n. This is an extra feature of HTMLFormat.space() that makes the comparison less than equal.

   Lastly, I made a few tests of my own:

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34

   // A non-static version public function space(n:int): String { var str:String = ""; for (var i:int = 0; i < n; ++i) { str += "&nbsp; "; } return str; }   // The worst of both worlds private function space2(n:int): String { // Make a string with n spaces var str:String = ""; for (var i:int = 0; i < n; ++i) { str += " "; } return str.replace(" ", "&nbsp; "); }   // An attempt to put more work on the player private function space3(n:int): String { return new Array(n+1).join("&nbsp; "); }   // Vector version of space3 private function space4(n:int): String { return new Vector.(n+1, true).join("&nbsp; "); }

   But none of them are even as fast as my above implementation of HTMLFormat.space():

   Non-static space (n); // 27
   space2 (n); // 36
   space3 (n); // 66
   space4 (n); // 127

   Thanks for the article!

   PS: Do you allow code markup for syntax highlighting in your posts?

   Jackson Dunstan  Oct 8  12:25 am
2. 

   @Jackson — Since I’m not setting $string to the replaced value, String.replace actually does occur for each iteration. After writing the post, I did realize how it’s more convenient to have an n number of spaces. In the end, I don’t see myself running something like this 10,000+ times. For kicks, I added one more player the game, knowing, however, that it would fail miserably: StringUtil.substitute (str, …rest);.

   The code:

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

   $string = "Hey there{2}, what is{4}going on{4}?";   $before = getTimer (); for ($a = 0; $a < $A; $a++) { StringUtil.substitute ($string, " &nbsp;", " &nbsp; &nbsp;", " &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;", " &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;"); } $after = getTimer () - $before trace ("StringUtil.substitute", $after);

   and the result:

   StringUtil.substitute (str, ...rest); // 325

   If you wrap your comment code with <pre lang="actionscript3"> and </pre>, it should format it correctly. At the moment, however, it will be bold because of a lingering CSS style. Since I’m 40,000 feet up, using in-flight wifi, FTP isn’t cooperating for me to fix it. Give me a few hours.

   Jonnie  Oct 8  4:48 pm

Reply