Use OrderedDictionary to dynamically create new objects (#11090)

* updating links to relative. fixing typo
* More editorial changes

---------

Co-authored-by: Sean Wheeler <[email protected]>

Author: santisq

reference/docs-conceptual/dev-cross-plat/performance/script-authoring-considerations.md

@@ -627,6 +627,179 @@ Unwrapped = 42.92 ms
 The unwrapped example is **372 times faster**. Also, notice that the first implementation requires
 the **Append** parameter, which isn't required for the later implementation.
 
+## Use OrderedDictionary to dynamically create new objects
+
+There are situations where we may need to dynamically create objects based on some input, the
+perhaps most commonly used way to create a new **PSObject** and then add new properties using the
+`Add-Member` cmdlet. The performance cost for small collections using this technique may be
+negligible however it can become very noticeable for big collections. In that case, the recommended
+approach is to use an `[OrderedDictionary]` and then convert it to a **PSObject** using the
+`[pscustomobject]` type accelerator. For more information, see the _Creating ordered dictionaries_
+section of [about_Hash_Tables][19].
+
+Assume you have the following API response stored in the variable `$json`.
+
+```json
+{
+  "tables": [
+    {
+      "name": "PrimaryResult",
+      "columns": [
+        { "name": "Type", "type": "string" },
+        { "name": "TenantId", "type": "string" },
+        { "name": "count_", "type": "long" }
+      ],
+      "rows": [
+        [ "Usage", "63613592-b6f7-4c3d-a390-22ba13102111", "1" ],
+        [ "Usage", "d436f322-a9f4-4aad-9a7d-271fbf66001c", "1" ],
+        [ "BillingFact", "63613592-b6f7-4c3d-a390-22ba13102111", "1" ],
+        [ "BillingFact", "d436f322-a9f4-4aad-9a7d-271fbf66001c", "1" ],
+        [ "Operation", "63613592-b6f7-4c3d-a390-22ba13102111", "7" ],
+        [ "Operation", "d436f322-a9f4-4aad-9a7d-271fbf66001c", "5" ]
+      ]
+    }
+  ]
+}
+```
+
+Now, suppose you want to export this data to a CSV. First you need to create new objects and add the
+properties and values using the `Add-Member` cmdlet.
+
+```powershell
+$data = $json | ConvertFrom-Json
+$columns = $data.tables.columns
+$result = foreach ($row in $data.tables.rows) {
+    $obj = [psobject]::new()
+    $index = 0
+
+    foreach ($column in $columns) {
+        $obj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name $column.name -Value $row[$index++]
+    }
+
+    $obj
+}
+```
+
+Using an `OrderedDictionary`, the code can be translated to:
+
+```powershell
+$data = $json | ConvertFrom-Json
+$columns = $data.tables.columns
+$result = foreach ($row in $data.tables.rows) {
+    $obj = [ordered]@{}
+    $index = 0
+
+    foreach ($column in $columns) {
+        $obj[$column.name] = $row[$index++]
+    }
+
+    [pscustomobject] $obj
+}
+```
+
+In both cases the `$result` output would be same:
+
+```output
+Type        TenantId                             count_
+----        --------                             ------
+Usage       63613592-b6f7-4c3d-a390-22ba13102111 1
+Usage       d436f322-a9f4-4aad-9a7d-271fbf66001c 1
+BillingFact 63613592-b6f7-4c3d-a390-22ba13102111 1
+BillingFact d436f322-a9f4-4aad-9a7d-271fbf66001c 1
+Operation   63613592-b6f7-4c3d-a390-22ba13102111 7
+Operation   d436f322-a9f4-4aad-9a7d-271fbf66001c 5
+```
+
+The latter approach becomes exponentially more efficient as the number of objects and member
+properties increases.
+
+Here is a performance comparison of three techniques for creating objects with 5 properties:
+
+```powershell
+$tests = @{
+    '[ordered] into [pscustomobject] cast' = {
+        param([int] $iterations, [string[]] $props)
+
+        foreach ($i in 1..$iterations) {
+            $obj = [ordered]@{}
+            foreach ($prop in $props) {
+                $obj[$prop] = $i
+            }
+            [pscustomobject] $obj
+        }
+    }
+    'Add-Member'                           = {
+        param([int] $iterations, [string[]] $props)
+
+        foreach ($i in 1..$iterations) {
+            $obj = [psobject]::new()
+            foreach ($prop in $props) {
+                $obj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name $prop -Value $i
+            }
+            $obj
+        }
+    }
+    'PSObject.Properties.Add'              = {
+        param([int] $iterations, [string[]] $props)
+
+        # this is how, behind the scenes, `Add-Member` attaches
+        # new properties to our PSObject.
+        # Worth having it here for performance comparison
+
+        foreach ($i in 1..$iterations) {
+            $obj = [psobject]::new()
+            foreach ($prop in $props) {
+                $obj.PSObject.Properties.Add(
+                    [psnoteproperty]::new($prop, $i))
+            }
+            $obj
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+$properties = 'Prop1', 'Prop2', 'Prop3', 'Prop4', 'Prop5'
+
+1kb, 10kb, 100kb | ForEach-Object {
+    $groupResult = foreach ($test in $tests.GetEnumerator()) {
+        $ms = Measure-Command { & $test.Value -iterations $_ -props $properties }
+
+        [pscustomobject]@{
+            Iterations        = $_
+            Test              = $test.Key
+            TotalMilliseconds = [math]::Round($ms.TotalMilliseconds, 2)
+        }
+
+        [GC]::Collect()
+        [GC]::WaitForPendingFinalizers()
+    }
+
+    $groupResult = $groupResult | Sort-Object TotalMilliseconds
+    $groupResult | Select-Object *, @{
+        Name       = 'RelativeSpeed'
+        Expression = {
+            $relativeSpeed = $_.TotalMilliseconds / $groupResult[0].TotalMilliseconds
+            [math]::Round($relativeSpeed, 2).ToString() + 'x'
+        }
+    }
+}
+```
+
+And these are the results:
+
+```output
+Iterations Test                                 TotalMilliseconds RelativeSpeed
+---------- ----                                 ----------------- -------------
+      1024 [ordered] into [pscustomobject] cast             22.00 1x
+      1024 PSObject.Properties.Add                         153.17 6.96x
+      1024 Add-Member                                      261.96 11.91x
+     10240 [ordered] into [pscustomobject] cast             65.24 1x
+     10240 PSObject.Properties.Add                        1293.07 19.82x
+     10240 Add-Member                                     2203.03 33.77x
+    102400 [ordered] into [pscustomobject] cast            639.83 1x
+    102400 PSObject.Properties.Add                       13914.67 21.75x
+    102400 Add-Member                                    23496.08 36.72x
+```
+
 ## Related links
 
 - [`$null`][03]
@@ -643,6 +816,7 @@ the **Append** parameter, which isn't required for the later implementation.
 - [`[StreamReader]`][15]
 - [`[File]::ReadLines()` method][16]
 - [Write-Host][17]
+- [Add-Member][18]
 
 <!-- Link reference definitions -->
 [02]: ../../learn/deep-dives/everything-about-hashtable.md
@@ -661,3 +835,5 @@ the **Append** parameter, which isn't required for the later implementation.
 [15]: xref:System.IO.StreamReader
 [16]: xref:System.IO.File.ReadLines*
 [17]: xref:Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility.Write-Host
+[18]: xref:Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility.Add-Member
+[19]: /powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_hash_tables#creating-ordered-dictionaries