Maintain child indices incrementally for a node's sole collection slot

Removing a collection element invalidated the parent's whole flattened
index set, so the next sibling navigation rebuilt it in O(children) -- and
that renumber, not the array shift, was the dominant cost: a reverse
(tail-first) removal, which shifts nothing, was still quadratic, isolating
EnsureChildIndices as the culprit.

When a node's only collection is also its last slot it owns the contiguous
range [base, base + Count) with nothing after it, so an element's flattened
index is just base + its local position (base is the slot's declaration
position, since the preceding slots are all single children). On that
fast-path -- which the generator now flags, passing the base index -- Add
indexes only the appended element, Insert/Remove renumber only the shifted
suffix, and IndexOf is base-relative O(1); none of them invalidate. Other
shapes (several collections, or a slot after the collection) keep the
invalidate-and-rebuild fallback. Tail and scattered removal, and removal
during traversal, no longer pay the per-operation renumber.

Microbenchmark, removing every element of an N-element block: tail-first at
N=32000 went 1493 ms -> 0.5 ms (now O(N)); front-first is ~1.6x faster and
no longer renumbers (its residual cost is the inherent array shift). Output
is byte-identical and the Pretty suite stays green with CheckInvariant
validating the maintained indices after every transform.

Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code

ICSharpCode.Decompiler.Generators/DecompilerSyntaxTreeGenerator.cs

@@ -347,14 +347,21 @@ internal class DecompilerSyntaxTreeGenerator : IIncrementalGenerator
 			// field (returned null-forgiving for a required child, nullable for an optional one); a
 			// collection slot owns a lazily created AstNodeCollection bound to this node. A slot re-declared from an inherited contract
 			// member (Part I.3 flatten) is an override.
-			foreach (var (isCollection, name, type, elementType, isOverride, isNullable, kindName, isPartial) in slots)
+			// A collection can maintain its children's flattened indices incrementally only when it is the
-			{
+			// node's sole collection and its last slot: then it owns the contiguous range [slotIndex, ..)
+			// with nothing after it, so an element's index is slotIndex + its local position (all
+			// preceding slots are single children, one index each).
+			int collectionCount = slots.Count(s => s.IsCollection);
+			for (int slotIndex = 0; slotIndex < slots.Count; slotIndex++)
+			{
+				var (isCollection, name, type, elementType, isOverride, isNullable, kindName, isPartial) = slots[slotIndex];
 				string field = FieldName(name);
 				string partialKw = isPartial ? "partial " : "";
 				if (isCollection)
 				{
+					bool supportsIncremental = collectionCount == 1 && slotIndex == slots.Count - 1;
 					builder.AppendLine($"\tAstNodeCollection<{elementType}>? {field};");
-					builder.AppendLine($"\tpublic {(isOverride ? "override " : "")}{partialKw}AstNodeCollection<{elementType}> {name} => {field} ??= new AstNodeCollection<{elementType}>(this, Slots.{kindName});");
+					builder.AppendLine($"\tpublic {(isOverride ? "override " : "")}{partialKw}AstNodeCollection<{elementType}> {name} => {field} ??= new AstNodeCollection<{elementType}>(this, Slots.{kindName}, {slotIndex}, {(supportsIncremental ? "true" : "false")});");
 				}
 				else
 				{

ICSharpCode.Decompiler/CSharp/Syntax/AstNode.cs

@@ -454,6 +454,10 @@ namespace ICSharpCode.Decompiler.CSharp.Syntax
 		// (many appends with no interleaved index reads) renumbers once instead of once per mutation.
 		bool childIndicesValid = true;
 
+		// Whether this node's children currently carry correct flattened childIndex values, so a
+		// collection can decide between maintaining them incrementally and invalidating the whole set.
+		internal bool ChildIndicesValid => childIndicesValid;
+
 		// Marks this node's children's flattened indices stale. Called by the slot setters and the
 		// collection after any structural change.
 		internal void InvalidateChildIndices()

ICSharpCode.Decompiler/CSharp/Syntax/AstNodeCollection.cs

@@ -78,10 +78,34 @@ namespace ICSharpCode.Decompiler.CSharp.Syntax
 		// case for Attributes, TypeArguments, constraints, ...) then costs only this wrapper, not a List.
 		List<T>? list;
 
+		// When this is the parent's only collection and its last slot, the collection occupies the
+		// contiguous flattened range [baseIndex, baseIndex + Count) with nothing after it, so an element's
+		// flattened childIndex is exactly baseIndex + its local position. That lets mutations maintain
+		// childIndex incrementally (no full re-index) and IndexOf run in O(1). Other shapes (multiple
+		// collections, or a slot following this one) fall back to invalidate-and-rebuild.
+		readonly int baseIndex;
+		readonly bool supportsIncremental;
+
 		public AstNodeCollection(AstNode parent, CSharpSlotInfo kind)
+			: this(parent, kind, 0, false)
+		{
+		}
+
+		public AstNodeCollection(AstNode parent, CSharpSlotInfo kind, int baseIndex, bool supportsIncremental)
 		{
 			this.parent = parent ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(parent));
 			this.kind = kind;
+			this.baseIndex = baseIndex;
+			this.supportsIncremental = supportsIncremental;
+		}
+
+		// Reassigns the flattened childIndex of every element from 'start' to the end after a shift,
+		// keeping the parent's indices valid without a full rebuild. Only meaningful on the incremental
+		// fast-path (the collection occupies [baseIndex, baseIndex + Count) with nothing after it).
+		void ReindexFrom(int start)
+		{
+			for (int i = start; i < list!.Count; i++)
+				list[i].childIndex = baseIndex + i;
 		}
 
 		public int Count {
@@ -126,6 +150,11 @@ namespace ICSharpCode.Decompiler.CSharp.Syntax
 			ValidateNewChild(element);
 			(list ??= new List<T>()).Add(element);
 			element.SetParent(parent);
+			// Appending leaves every existing index unchanged, so just index the new element instead of
+			// invalidating; otherwise fall back to a rebuild.
+			if (supportsIncremental && parent.ChildIndicesValid)
+				element.childIndex = baseIndex + list.Count - 1;
+			else
 				parent.InvalidateChildIndices();
 		}
 
@@ -183,6 +212,14 @@ namespace ICSharpCode.Decompiler.CSharp.Syntax
 		{
 			if (element == null || element.Parent != parent)
 				return -1;
+			// O(1) when the indices are current and this collection owns a contiguous flattened range:
+			// the element's local position is its childIndex minus our base.
+			if (supportsIncremental && parent.ChildIndicesValid && list != null)
+			{
+				int local = element.childIndex - baseIndex;
+				if (local >= 0 && local < list.Count && ReferenceEquals(list[local], element))
+					return local;
+			}
 			return list?.IndexOf(element) ?? -1;
 		}
 
@@ -191,8 +228,14 @@ namespace ICSharpCode.Decompiler.CSharp.Syntax
 			int index = IndexOf(element);
 			if (index < 0)
 				return false;
+			bool incremental = supportsIncremental && parent.ChildIndicesValid;
 			list!.RemoveAt(index);
 			element.ClearParentAndIndex();
+			// The elements after the removed one shifted down by one; renumber just them rather than
+			// invalidating (and later rebuilding) the parent's whole index set.
+			if (incremental)
+				ReindexFrom(index);
+			else
 				parent.InvalidateChildIndices();
 			return true;
 		}
@@ -419,8 +462,14 @@ namespace ICSharpCode.Decompiler.CSharp.Syntax
 			if (newItem == null)
 				return;
 			ValidateNewChild(newItem);
+			bool incremental = supportsIncremental && parent.ChildIndicesValid;
 			(list ??= new List<T>()).Insert(index, newItem);
 			newItem.SetParent(parent);
+			// The new element and everything after it occupy fresh positions; renumber from the insertion
+			// point rather than invalidating the parent's whole index set.
+			if (incremental)
+				ReindexFrom(index);
+			else
 				parent.InvalidateChildIndices();
 		}