Fastest way to do a contains with string[]

Question

I am getting back a "string[]" from a 3rd party library. I want to do a contains on it. what is the most efficient way of doing this?

Answer 1

Array.IndexOf:

bool contains = Array.IndexOf(arr, value) >= 0;

Or just use LINQ:

bool contains = arr.Contains(value);

LINQ should be "fast enough" for most purposes.

Answer 2

If you are only checking a single time, use Array.IndexOf or the LINQ Contains method like Marc proposed. If you are checking several times, it might be faster to first convert the string array into a HashSet<string>.