c# ref for speed

Question

I understand full the ref word in the .NET

Since using the same variable, would increase speed to use ref instead of making copy?

I find bottleneck to be in password general.

Here is my codes

protected internal string GetSecurePasswordString(string legalChars, int length)
{
    Random myRandom = new Random();
    string myString = "";
    for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
    {
        int charPos = myRandom.Next(0, legalChars.Length - 1);
        myString = myString + legalChars[charPos].ToString();
    }
    return myString;
}

is better to ref before legalchars?

Answer 1

No, you shouldn't pass the string reference by reference.

However, you are creating several strings pointlessly. If you're creating long passwords, that could be why it's a bottleneck. Here's a faster implementation:

protected internal string GetSecurePasswordString(string legalChars, int length)
{
    Random myRandom = new Random();
    char[] chars = new char[length];
    for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
    {
        int charPos = myRandom.Next(0, legalChars.Length - 1);
        chars[i] = legalChars[charPos];
    }
    return new string(chars);
}

However, it still has three big flaws:

• It creates a new instance of Random each time. If you call this method twice in quick succession, you'll get the same password twice. Bad idea.
• The upper bound specified in a Random.Next() call is exclusive - so you'll never use the last character of legalChars.
• It uses System.Random, which is not meant to be in any way cryptographically secure. Given that this is meant to be for a "secure password" you should consider using something like System.Security.Cryptography.RandomNumberGenerator. It's more work to do so because the API is harder, but you'll end up with a more secure system (if you do it properly).

You might also want to consider using SecureString, if you get really paranoid.