How would you make this switch statement as fast as possible?

Question

Assuming every input will be a valid ActivCode, that you can change the enumeration values and highly coupled to the GetHashCode implementation:

enum MarketDataExchange
{
    NONE,
    NBBO = 371857150,
    AMEX = 372029405,
    BSE = 372029408,
    BATS = -1850320644,
    NSE = 372029407,
    CHX = -284236702,
    NYSE = 372029412,
    ARCA = -734575383,
    NASDAQ = 372029421,
    NASDAQ_ADF = -1137859911,
    CBOE = 372029419,
    PHLX = 372029430,
    DIRECTEDGE = 372029429
}

public static MarketDataExchange GetMarketDataExchange(string ActivCode)
{
    if (ActivCode == null) return MarketDataExchange.NONE;

    return (MarketDataExchange)ActivCode.GetHashCode();
}

I'd roll my own fast hash function and use an integer switch statement to avoid string comparisons:

int  h = 0;  

// Compute fast hash: A[0] + A[1]*0x100
if (ActivCode.Length > 0)
    h += (int) ActivCode[0];
if (ActivCode.Length > 1)
    h += (int) ActivCode[1] << 8;  

// Find a match
switch (h)
{
    case 0x0000:  return MarketDataExchange.NBBO;        // ""
    case 0x0041:  return MarketDataExchange.AMEX;        // "A"
    case 0x0042:  return MarketDataExchange.BSE;         // "B"
    case 0x5442:  return MarketDataExchange.BATS;        // "BT"
    case 0x0043:  return MarketDataExchange.NSE;         // "C"
    case 0x574D:  return MarketDataExchange.CHX;         // "MW"
    case 0x004E:  return MarketDataExchange.NYSE;        // "N"
    case 0x4150:  return MarketDataExchange.ARCA;        // "PA"
    case 0x0051:  return MarketDataExchange.NASDAQ;      // "Q"
    case 0x4451:  return MarketDataExchange.NASDAQ_ADF;  // "QD"
    case 0x0057:  return MarketDataExchange.CBOE;        // "W"
    case 0x0058:  return MarketDataExchange.PHLX;        // "X"
    case 0x0059:  return MarketDataExchange.DIRECTEDGE;  // "Y"
    default:      return MarketDataExchange.NONE;
}

My tests show that this is about 4.5 times faster than the original code.

If C# had a preprocessor, I'd use a macro to form the case constants.

This technique is faster than using a hash table and certainly faster than using string comparisons. It works for up to four-character strings with 32-bit ints, and up to 8 characters using 64-bit longs.

If you know how often the various codes show up, the more common ones should go at the top of the list, so fewer comparisons are done. But let's assume you don't have that.

Assuming the ActivCode is always valid will of course speed things up. You don't need to test for null or the empty string, and you can leave off one test from the end of the switch. That is, test for everything except Y, and then return DIRECTEDGE if no match is found.

Instead of switching on the whole string, switch on its first letter. For the codes that have more letters, put a second test inside the switch case. Something like this:

switch(ActivCode[0])
{
   //etc.
   case 'B':
      if ( ActivCode.Length == 1 ) return MarketDataExchange.BSE; 
      else return MarketDataExchange.BATS;
      // etc.
}

It would be better if you could go back and change the codes so they are all single characters, because you would then never need more than one test. Better yet would be using the numerical value of the enum, so you can simply cast instead of having to switch/translate in the first place.

I'd use a dictionary for the key value pairs and take advantage of the O(1) lookup time.

Do you have any statistics on which strings are more common? So that those could be checked first?

With a valid input could use

if (ActivCode.Length == 0)
    return MarketDataExchange.NBBO;

if (ActivCode.Length == 1)
    return (MarketDataExchange) (ActivCode[0]);

return (MarketDataExchange) (ActivCode[0] | ActivCode[1] << 8);