System.String.Intern method

This article provides supplementary remarks to the reference documentation for this API.

The common language runtime conserves string storage by maintaining a table, called the intern pool, that contains a single reference to each unique literal string declared or created programmatically in your program. Consequently, an instance of a literal string with a particular value only exists once in the system.

For example, if you assign the same literal string to several variables, the runtime retrieves the same reference to the literal string from the intern pool and assigns it to each variable.

The Intern method uses the intern pool to search for a string equal to the value of str. If such a string exists, its reference in the intern pool is returned. If the string does not exist, a reference to str is added to the intern pool, then that reference is returned.

In the following example, the string s1, which has a value of "MyTest", is already interned because it is a literal in the program. The System.Text.StringBuilder class generates a new string object that has the same value as s1. A reference to that string is assigned to s2. The Intern method searches for a string that has the same value as s2. Because such a string exists, the method returns the same reference that is assigned to s1. That reference is then assigned to s3. References s1 and s2 compare unequal because they refer to different objects; references s1 and s3 compare equal because they refer to the same string.

string s1 = "MyTest"; 
string s2 = new StringBuilder().Append("My").Append("Test").ToString(); 
string s3 = String.Intern(s2); 
Console.WriteLine((Object)s2==(Object)s1); // Different references.
Console.WriteLine((Object)s3==(Object)s1); // The same reference.

let s1 = "MyTest"
let s2 = StringBuilder().Append("My").Append("Test").ToString()
let s3 = String.Intern s2
printfn $"{s2 :> obj = s1 :> obj}" // Different references.
printfn $"{s3 :> obj = s1 :> obj}" // The same reference.

Dim s1 As String = "MyTest" 
Dim s2 As String = New StringBuilder().Append("My").Append("Test").ToString() 
Dim s3 As String = String.Intern(s2) 
Console.WriteLine(CObj(s2) Is CObj(s1))      ' Different references.
Console.WriteLine(CObj(s3) Is CObj(s1))      ' The same reference.

Compare this method to the IsInterned method.

In the following example, the variable str1 is assigned a reference to String.Empty, and the variable str2 is assigned the reference to String.Empty that is returned by calling the Intern method after converting a StringBuilder object whose value is String.Empty to a string. Then the references contained in str1 and str2 are compared for equality. str1 and str2 are equal.

string str1 = String.Empty;
string str2 = String.Empty;

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder().Append(String.Empty);
str2 = String.Intern(sb.ToString());

if ((object)str1 == (object)str2)
    Console.WriteLine("The strings are equal.");
else
    Console.WriteLine("The strings are not equal.");

let str1 = String.Empty
let str2 = String.Empty

let sb = StringBuilder().Append String.Empty
let str3 = String.Intern(string sb)

if (str1 :> obj) = (str3 :> obj) then
    printfn "The strings are equal."
else
    printfn "The strings are not equal."

Dim str1 As String = String.Empty
Dim str2 As String = String.Empty

Dim sb As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder().Append(String.Empty)
str2 = String.Intern(sb.ToString())

If CObj(str1) Is CObj(str2) Then
    Console.WriteLine("The strings are equal.")
Else
    Console.WriteLine("The strings are not equal.")
End If

Performance considerations

If you are trying to reduce the total amount of memory your application allocates, keep in mind that interning a string has two unwanted side effects. First, the memory allocated for interned String objects is not likely to be released until the common language runtime (CLR) terminates. The reason is that the CLR's reference to the interned String object can persist after your application, or even your application domain, terminates. Second, to intern a string, you must first create the string. The memory used by the String object must still be allocated, even though the memory will eventually be garbage collected.

The CompilationRelaxations.NoStringInterning enumeration member marks an assembly as not requiring string-literal interning. You can apply NoStringInterning to an assembly using the CompilationRelaxationsAttribute attribute. Also, when you use Ngen.exe (Native Image Generator) to compile an assembly in advance of run time, strings are not interned across modules.