作为一般的经验法则，如果我必须设置字符串的值不止一次，或者如果字符串有任何追加，那么它需要是一个字符串构建器。在了解字符串构建器之前，我曾经看到我过去编写的应用程序具有巨大的内存足迹，而且似乎一直在不断增长。将这些程序更改为使用字符串构建器可以显著减少内存使用。现在我对琴弦制造者发誓。

StringBuilder更适合从许多非常量值构建字符串。

If you're building up a string from a lot of constant values, such as multiple lines of values in an HTML or XML document or other chunks of text, you can get away with just appending to the same string, because almost all compilers do "constant folding", a process of reducing the parse tree when you have a bunch of constant manipulation (it's also used when you write something like int minutesPerYear = 24 * 365 * 60). And for simple cases with non-constant values appended to each other, the .NET compiler will reduce your code to something similar to what StringBuilder does.

但是当你的append不能被编译器简化为更简单的东西时，你将需要一个StringBuilder。正如fizch所指出的，这更有可能发生在循环内部。

从内存的角度来看，StringBuilder的性能会更好。至于处理，执行时间的差异可以忽略不计。

StringBuilder明显更高效，但除非您进行大量的字符串修改，否则无法看到这种性能。

下面是给出性能示例的一小段代码。正如您所看到的，只有当您进入大型迭代时，您才真正开始看到主要的性能提升。

正如您所看到的，20万次迭代花费了22秒，而使用StringBuilder的100万次迭代几乎是瞬间完成的。

string s = string.Empty;
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

Console.WriteLine("Beginning String + at " + DateTime.Now.ToString());

for (int i = 0; i <= 50000; i++)
{
    s = s + 'A';
}

Console.WriteLine("Finished String + at " + DateTime.Now.ToString());
Console.WriteLine();

Console.WriteLine("Beginning String + at " + DateTime.Now.ToString());

for (int i = 0; i <= 200000; i++)
{
    s = s + 'A';
}

Console.WriteLine("Finished String + at " + DateTime.Now.ToString());
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Beginning Sb append at " + DateTime.Now.ToString());

for (int i = 0; i <= 1000000; i++)
{
    sb.Append("A");
}
Console.WriteLine("Finished Sb append at " + DateTime.Now.ToString());

Console.ReadLine();

以上代码的结果:

开头字符串+在28/01/2013 16:55:40。 完成字符串+在28/01/2013 16:55:40。 开头字符串+在28/01/2013 16:55:40。 完成字符串+在28/01/2013 16:56:02。 开始Sb追加在28/01/2013 16:56:02。 完成Sb的追加在28/01/2013 16:56:02。

如果你要做很多字符串连接，使用StringBuilder。当您连接一个String时，每次都会创建一个新的String，这会占用更多的内存。

Alex

The performance of a concatenation operation for a String or StringBuilder object depends on how often a memory allocation occurs. A String concatenation operation always allocates memory, whereas a StringBuilder concatenation operation only allocates memory if the StringBuilder object buffer is too small to accommodate the new data. Consequently, the String class is preferable for a concatenation operation if a fixed number of String objects are concatenated. In that case, the individual concatenation operations might even be combined into a single operation by the compiler. A StringBuilder object is preferable for a concatenation operation if an arbitrary number of strings are concatenated; for example, if a loop concatenates a random number of strings of user input.

来源:MSDN