Question

I’m using WPF converter and wondered in terms of performance what would be better in the following example, to use class members or local variables ?

    public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter,System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
        if ((int)value == 1)
            return (Color)ColorConverter.ConvertFromString("#FCD44E");

        return (Color)ColorConverter.ConvertFromString("#FCD44E");
    }

or :

    Color _color1 = (Color)ColorConverter.ConvertFromString("#FCD44E");
    Color _color2 = (Color)ColorConverter.ConvertFromString("#FCD666");

    public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
        if ((int)value == 1)
            return _color1;

        return _color2;
    }

Answer 1

The most performant would be to use private static readonly as follows

private static readonly Color Color1 = (Color)ColorConverter.ConvertFromString("#FCD44E");
private static readonly Color Color2 = (Color)ColorConverter.ConvertFromString("#FCD666");

public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
{
    if ((int)value == 1)
        return Color1;

    return Color2;
}

See this answer for good discussion: Method can be made static, but should it?