StrCat.Catter - An Efficient String Concatenation Component

I wrote this component - StrCat.Catter - because string concatenation in Visual Basic (Script) has poor performance characteristics. I found that code like this:

- continued -

<% Dim rs Set rs = ExecuteSql("SELECT Username FROM Users") Dim some_str some_str = "" do until rs.EOF some_str = some_str & rs(0) & "<br>" & vbCrLf rs.MoveNext loop Response.Write some_str %>

performed very poorly. The code took a long time to execute, during which time the processor was totally saturated. I found articles on MSDN stating that this type of code was a bad idea, and I've heard that this type of concatenation results in run times that are proportional to the square of the number of concatenations. There are times when a solution based on passing strings - instead of passing function pointers or function objects capable of outputting strings - is favorable. For example, let's say I have a general routine that asks the user to verify their billing information before they make a purchase, and this routine needs to output a summary of what the user is buying. You might be tempted to say:

<%   ' Output your purchase summary...   ' ...then output your billing information verification system. %>

but what if your billing information verification code needs to sprinkle HTML on boths sides of the purchase summary. Then you're better off passing that purchase summary - as a string - to the billing information verification code. You could put together some sort of "object that outputs purchase summaries when this method is called" type of system - and VBScript allows for this type of system - but let's keep things simple and pretend we just want to pass in a string and we need efficient string concatenation.

Enter StrCat.Catter. "Catter" is a C++ COM component with a very small interface. Here's typical usage of it:

<% Dim strcat Set strcat = Server.CreateObject("StrCat.Catter") Dim rs Set rs = ExecuteSql("SELECT Username FROM Users") do until rs.EOF strcat rs(0) & "<br>" & vbCrLf rs.MoveNext loop Dim some_str some_str = strcat.Dump Set strcat = nothing Response.Write some_str %>

That's pretty simple, isn't it? By having the concatenation method be the default method, you just say the Catter's name - in this case strcat - and it just tacks on the string you give it. When you're ready to use the whole string, call Dump and you've got it!

In Part 2 we'll look at the implementation of our Catter class and performance tests.