c# - Why StringBuilder.Replace is slower than String.Replace

Question

According to the following unit test methods, StringBuilder is far slower than String.Replace, how come every one saying StringBuilder is faster? Am I missing something?

[TestMethod]
public void StringReplace()
{
    DateTime date = DateTime.Now;
    string template = File.ReadAllText("file.txt");
    for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
    {
        template = template.Replace("cat", "book" );
        template = template.Replace("book", "cat"); 
    }
    Assert.Fail((DateTime.Now - date).Milliseconds.ToString()); 
}

[TestMethod]
public void StringBuilder()
{
    DateTime date = DateTime.Now;
    StringBuilder template = new StringBuilder(File.ReadAllText("file.txt"));
    for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
    {
        template.Replace("cat", "book");
        template.Replace("book", "cat"); 
    }
    Assert.Fail((DateTime.Now - date).Milliseconds.ToString());
}

Here is the result:

StringReplace - 335ms

StringBuilder - 799ms

Answer 1

StringBuilder is faster at building strings. Replacing is a different concern.

Eg, the following example code:

    [TestMethod]
    public void StringConcat()
    {
        var start = DateTime.Now;

        var s = string.Empty;
        for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
        {
            s += "cat";
        }
        Assert.Fail((DateTime.Now - start).TotalMilliseconds.ToString()); 
    }

    [TestMethod]
    public void StringBuilder()
    {
        var start = DateTime.Now;

        var sb = new StringBuilder();
        for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
        { 
            sb.Append("cat");
        }
        Assert.Fail((DateTime.Now - start).TotalMilliseconds.ToString()); 
    }

For me, I get 14,645ms (14.6 seconds) and 2ms respectively.