What is fastest: (int), Convert.ToInt32(x) or Int32.Parse(x)?

Question

Which of the following code is fastest/best practice for converting some object x?

int myInt = (int)x;

or

int myInt = Convert.T         


        

Answer 1

When optimising a bound data grid in .Net 2, I found almost half the time was spent in various object's ToString() methods that were then used as the inputs of Convert operations. By isolating these cases and by casting to the correct type where possible (since they were rows taken out of a database and the types could be relied upon) this caused a massive increase in speed of that data binding operation.

So, if you know the type of the thing up front and you'll hit the piece of code enough times, it's worth the effort to cast it directly instead of converting where necessary.