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Asked: 2026-06-14T07:57:31+00:00

I need to store a list of processed network file shares (keeping the full

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I need to store a list of processed network file shares (keeping the full UNC path) in memory so I do not process these folders again.

I was going to use an array but now I am thinking that a hashtable might be a faster option. I will need to check in a few places if that folder path (string value) exists already.

What what be the fastest (to check for an existence of that value) and less memory consuming option?

  1. Store folder paths in a hashtable with an key=folder path and an empty value
  2. Store folder paths in a one dimensional array
  3. Something else

UPDATE:
I just ran a few tests like in that thread pointed below by generating 50000 strings and doing 3 lookups. I also looked at memory consumption and HashSet is a winner. HashTable is still a good option but Array is the worst one.

Array – 125048 ms to create, 37 ms to lookup, 18Mb in RAM

Hash – 2167 ms to create, 0.74 ms to lookup, 2.4Mb in RAM

HashSet – 1966 ms to create, 0.02 ms to lookup, 1.4Mb in RAM

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  1. Editorial Team

    A hastable is preferable over an array in this situation as you are going to be querying for the keys after populating it and the number of items is relatively large. I would start with a hashtable. If the performance is not suitable, then try something else, like utilizing .net’s Dictionary(T,V) or .net 3.5+’s HashSet(T)

    Also, here is a link that will be of interest to you:

    Powershell 2 and .NET: Optimize for extremely large hash tables?

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