Flash Player 9 Container Performance Comparison Table

	Container
Data Types	[1] flash.Vector		[2] Array	[3] Linked List		[4] flash.Memory		flash.utils.ByteArray
	[5] typed	dynamic		typed	dynamic	[6] managed	[7] unmanaged
Byte	-	-	-	-	-	9 ms	8 ms	51 ms
Int	19 ms	57 ms	51 ms	19 ms	26 ms	9 ms	8 ms	[9]
UInt	19 ms	57 ms	51 ms	19 ms	25 ms	9 ms	8 ms	[9]
Float	-	-	-	-	-	9 ms	8 ms	[9]
Double [8]	19 ms	64 ms	57 ms	21 ms	33 ms	9 ms	8 ms	[9]
String	65 ms	61 ms	54 ms	23 ms	30 ms	-	-	[9]
Bool	53 ms	52 ms	46 ms	19 ms	23 ms	-	-	[9]
Object	70 ms	64 ms	58 ms	24 ms	33 ms	-	-	-
mean
	41 ms	59 ms	53 ms	21 ms	33 ms	9 ms	8 ms	51 ms

[1] built-in flash Vector class (FP10.x only)
[2] built-in flash Array
[3] de.polygonal.ds.DLL (Doubly Linked List)
[4] alchemy memory (FP10.x only)
[5] implements haxe.rtti.Generic
[6] uses de.polygonal.ds.!MemoryManager
[7] optimized loop for computing byte-offsets
[8] equals Number in AS3, Float in !HaXe
[9] Error #1502: A script has executed for longer than the default timeout period of 15 seconds.

Done using a CoreI7 920 CPU, Haxe, Flash Player 10.0.42.34 (release, windows-standalone).
Container size: 1.000.000 elements. All results represent the arithmetic mean over 100 iterations.

Arrayed containers use the standard for loop:

for (i in 0...k)
  var value = container[i];

Linked containers use:

var node = container.node;
while (node != null)
{
  var value = node.value;
  node = node.next;
}

Conclusions

• Compared to an array, reading non-number types from a vector is ~10% faster, but writing non-number types is ~15-20% slower, so in the end the array wins.
• For number crunching, use flash.Memory (Haxe) or the vector class if flash.Memory isn't available (ActionScript 3.0).
• A linked list still offers the best performance across all data types, but requires more memory.
• Since there is no measurable difference between various loop types (even at this high number of iterations) optimizing the loop itself is the last thing you should consider.