Why is reading a Dapper IEnumerable(dynamic) an order of magnitude slower than reading an IEnumerable(IDataRecord)? - enterprise-library

Question

In comparing Dapper with the Enterprise Library Data Access Access block for getting data via stored procedure. I see an overall performance benefit of about 40% when using Dapper, which is somewhat surprising.
However, when comparing iteration and getting data from an IEnumerable(IDataRecord) vs. IEnumerable(dynamic), IEnumerable(IDataRecord) is approximately an order of magnitude faster. Is this behavior well understood and to be expected or is there something not right here?
The results:
IEnumerable(IDataRecord)
IEnumerable(dynamic) - using dapperObject.propertyName
Now the interesting part, when using dapperObject["propertyName"], the performance is on par with IDataRecord. Not at all what I would have expected.
The relevant portion of the profiling code
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using Dapper.DataAccess;
using System.Data;
using tophat;
namespace Dapper.TestRunner
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var connectionString = "data source=WEBDBdev3,1866; User id=hsbmhw;Password=gEner4Y&M;Persist Security Info='true'; initial catalog=myhomeworks;";
//The following uses Tophat to create a singleton connection instance.
Database.Install<SqlServerConnectionFactory>(connectionString, ConnectionScope.ByRequest);
DapperTest();
DapperTest2();
EnterpriseLibraryIDataRecordTest();
}
private static void DapperTest()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
IEnumerable<dynamic> users = MyRepository.GetUsersDapper();
PopulateBusinessObjectsDynamic(users);
}
}
private static void DapperTest2()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
IEnumerable<dynamic> users = MyRepository.GetUsersDapper();
PopulateBusinessObjectsDynamic2(users);
}
}
private static void EnterpriseLibraryIDataRecordTest()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
IEnumerable<IDataRecord> users = MyRepository.GetUsersEntlib();
PopulateBusinessObjectsIDataRecord(users);
}
}
private static void PopulateBusinessObjectsDynamic(IEnumerable<dynamic> users)
{
foreach (var user in users)
{
BusinessObject bo = new BusinessObject(user);
}
}
private static void PopulateBusinessObjectsDynamic2(IEnumerable<dynamic> users)
{
foreach (var user in users)
{
BusinessObject bo = new BusinessObject(user);
}
}
private static void PopulateBusinessObjectsIDataRecord(IEnumerable<IDataRecord> users)
{
foreach (var user in users)
{
BusinessObject bo = new BusinessObject(user);
}
}
}
public class BusinessObject
{
public DateTime CreateDate { get; set; }
public String CreateDateString { get; set; }
public String FirstName { get; set; }
public bool IsApproved { get; set; }
public bool IsLockedOut { get; set; }
public DateTime LastActivityDate { get; set; }
public DateTime LastLoginDate { get; set; }
public String LastName {get;set;}
public String Organization{get;set;}
public int OrganizationId{get;set;}
public int PersonId{get;set;}
public String ProfileLastUpdatedBy{get;set;}
public DateTime ProfileLastUpdatedDate{get;set;}
public String RoleName{get;set;}
public long RowNumber{get;set;}
public int TotalCount{get;set;}
public Guid UserId{get;set;}
public string UserName {get;set;}
public string UserStatus{get;set;}
public BusinessObject(dynamic user)
{
CreateDate=user.CreateDate;
CreateDateString = user.CreateDateString;
FirstName = user.FirstName;
IsApproved = user.IsApproved;
IsLockedOut = user.IsLockedOut;
LastActivityDate= user.LastActivityDate;
LastLoginDate = user.LastLoginDate;
LastName = user.LastName;
Organization = user.organization;
OrganizationId=user.organization_id;
PersonId = user.party_id;
ProfileLastUpdatedBy = user.ProfileLastUpdatedBy;
ProfileLastUpdatedDate = user.ProfileLastUpdatedDate;
RoleName = user.RoleName;
RowNumber = user.RowNumber;
TotalCount = user.TotalCount;
UserId = user.UserId;
UserName= user.UserName;
UserStatus = user.UserStatus;
}
public BusinessObject(bool x, dynamic user)
{
CreateDate = user["CreateDate"];
CreateDateString = user["CreateDateString"];
FirstName = user["FirstName"];
IsApproved = user["IsApproved"];
IsLockedOut = user["IsLockedOut"];
LastActivityDate = user["LastActivityDate"];
LastLoginDate = user["LastLoginDate"];
LastName = user["LastName"];
Organization = user["organization"];
OrganizationId = user["organization_id"];
PersonId = user["party_id"];
ProfileLastUpdatedBy = user["ProfileLastUpdatedBy"];
ProfileLastUpdatedDate = user["ProfileLastUpdatedDate"];
RoleName = user["RoleName"];
RowNumber = user["RowNumber"];
TotalCount = user["TotalCount"];
UserId = user["UserId"];
UserName = user["UserName"];
UserStatus = user["UserStatus"];
}
public BusinessObject(IDataRecord user)
{
CreateDate = (DateTime)user["CreateDate"];
CreateDateString = (string)user["CreateDateString"];
FirstName = (string)user["FirstName"];
IsApproved = (bool)user["IsApproved"];
IsLockedOut = (bool)user["IsLockedOut"];
LastActivityDate = (DateTime)user["LastActivityDate"];
LastLoginDate = (DateTime)user["LastLoginDate"];
LastName = (string)user["LastName"];
Organization = (string)user["organization"];
OrganizationId = (int)user["organization_id"];
PersonId = (int)user["party_id"];
ProfileLastUpdatedBy = (string)user["ProfileLastUpdatedBy"];
ProfileLastUpdatedDate = (DateTime)user["ProfileLastUpdatedDate"];
RoleName = (string)user["RoleName"];
RowNumber = (long)user["RowNumber"];
TotalCount = (int)user["TotalCount"];
UserId = (Guid)user["UserId"];
UserName = (string)user["UserName"];
UserStatus = (string)user["UserStatus"];
}
}
}

Answer 1

You actually seem to be running the same test twice; the input (users) is the same, from here:
private static void DapperTest()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
IEnumerable<dynamic> users = MyRepository.GetUsersDapper();
PopulateBusinessObjectsDynamic(users);
}
}
private static void DapperTest2()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
IEnumerable<dynamic> users = MyRepository.GetUsersDapper();
PopulateBusinessObjectsDynamic2(users);
}
}
And the actual "what do we do" is the same, here:
private static void PopulateBusinessObjectsDynamic(IEnumerable<dynamic> users)
{
foreach (var user in users)
{
BusinessObject bo = new BusinessObject(user);
}
}
private static void PopulateBusinessObjectsDynamic2(IEnumerable<dynamic> users)
{
foreach (var user in users)
{
BusinessObject bo = new BusinessObject(user);
}
}
So... I have to conclude "a combination of JIT, data caching (at the database server) assembly loading/validation/fusion, connection pooling, and the dynamic cache features made the second test appear faster".
Note that the dynamic side of dapper is intended for ad-hoc usage only anyway. If you wanted the optimal face of dapper, you would use Query<T>, not dynamic.
In particular, AFAIK no build of dapper supports a string indexer on the dynamic API. The object implements IDictionary<string,object> for member access, but you would need to explicitly cast to that to use it - you can't do user["PropName"] if user is typed as dynamic (if I'm wrong, please tell me!).
As it happens, the unreleased "git" code (for the dynamic API) is noticeably faster than the current "nuget" implementation - but that is a bit of a tangent to this specific question.