Installation

dotnet add package BetterBuffers

Quick Start

using BetterBuffers;

// Create a buffer pool
var pool = new BufferPool<byte>();

// Rent a buffer
byte[] arrayBuffer = pool.RentExactly(1024, initializeWithDefaultValues: true);
// For even better performance, use this:
// Memory<byte> memoryBuffer = pool.RentMemory(1024, initializeWithDefaultValues: false);

try
{
    // Use the buffer...
    ProcessData(buffer);
}
finally
{
    // Return the buffer when done
    pool.Return(buffer);
}

Documentation

See docs for tutorials, how-to guides, explanations, and reference information.

Migration from ArrayPool

BetterBuffers is designed to be a drop-in replacement for ArrayPool:

// Before:
using System.Buffers;
var pool = ArrayPool<byte>.Create();

// After:
using BetterBuffers;
var pool = new BufferPool<byte>();

Advanced Usage

Getting memory segments (improves performance)

Memory<T> is more flexible compared to T[], and can be obtained more efficiently compared to RentExactly()

Memory<byte> memoryBuffer = pool.RentMemory(1024, initializeWithDefaultValues: true);

Skipping value initialization (improves performance)

Use if you plan to overwrite the values in the buffer anyway

Memory<byte> memoryBuffer = pool.RentMemory(1024, initializeWithDefaultValues: false);

Exceptionless error handling

if (!pool.TryRentMemory(1024, initializeWithDefaultValues: true, out Memory<byte> buffer))
{
  Console.WriteLine("Failed to allocate memory");
  return;
}

ProcessData(buffer);

How It Works

BetterBuffers improves on .NET's ArrayPool implementation in several key ways:

1. Gradually clears buffers that haven't been used in a while, reducing memory usage
2. No arbitrary caps on how many buffers can be rented, or number of buckets
3. More performant rental logic when a buffer is already available
4. Better error handling
5. Can provide exact array sizes when needed

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Inspired by .NET's ArrayPool implementation
• Performance testing methodology based on BenchmarkDotNet