java short,integer,long performance

Question

I read that JVM stores internally short, integer and long as 4 bytes. I read it from an article from the year 2000, so I don't know how true it is now.

For the newer JVMs, is there any performance gain in using short over integer/long? And did that part of the implementation has changed since 2000?

Thanks

Answer 1

There's basically no difference. One has to "confuse" the JITC a bit so that it doesn't recognize that the increment/decrement operations are self-cancelling and that the results aren't used. Do that and the three cases come out about equal. (Actually, short seems to be a tiny bit faster.)

public class ShortTest {

    public static void main(String[] args){
        // Do the inner method 5 times to see how it changes as the JITC attempts to
        // do further optimizations.
        for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
            calculate(i);
        }
    }

    public static void calculate(int passNum){

        System.out.println("Pass " + passNum);
        // Broke into two (nested) loop counters so the total number of iterations could
        // be large enough to be seen on the clock.  (Though this isn't as important when
        // the JITC over-optimizations are prevented.)
        int M = 100000;
        int N = 100000;
        java.util.Random r = new java.util.Random();
        short x = (short) r.nextInt(1);
        short y1 = (short) (x + 1);
        int y2 = x + 1;
        long y3 = x + 1;

        long time1=System.currentTimeMillis();
        short s=x;
        for (int j = 0; j<M;j++) {
            for(int i = 0; i<N;i++) {
                s+=y1;
                s-=1;
                if (s > 100) {
                    System.out.println("Shouldn't be here");
                }
            }
        }
        long time2=System.currentTimeMillis();
        System.out.println("Time elapsed for shorts: "+(time2-time1) + " (" + time1 + "," + time2 + ")");


        long time3=System.currentTimeMillis();
        int in=x;
        for (int j = 0; j<M;j++) {
            for(int i = 0; i<N;i++) {
                in+=y2;
                in-=1;
                if (in > 100) {
                    System.out.println("Shouldn't be here");
                }
            }
        }
        long time4=System.currentTimeMillis();
        System.out.println("Time elapsed for ints: "+(time4-time3) + " (" + time3 + "," + time4 + ")");


        long time5=System.currentTimeMillis();
        long l=x;
        for (int j = 0; j<M;j++) {
            for(int i = 0; i<N;i++) {
                l+=y3;
                l-=1;
                if (l > 100) {
                    System.out.println("Shouldn't be here");
                }
            }
        }
        long time6=System.currentTimeMillis();
        System.out.println("Time elapsed for longs: "+(time6-time5) + " (" + time5 + "," + time6 + ")");


        System.out.println(s+in+l);
    }
}

Results:

C:\JavaTools>java ShortTest
Pass 0
Time elapsed for shorts: 59119 (1422405830404,1422405889523)
Time elapsed for ints: 45810 (1422405889524,1422405935334)
Time elapsed for longs: 47840 (1422405935335,1422405983175)
0
Pass 1
Time elapsed for shorts: 58258 (1422405983176,1422406041434)
Time elapsed for ints: 45607 (1422406041435,1422406087042)
Time elapsed for longs: 46635 (1422406087043,1422406133678)
0
Pass 2
Time elapsed for shorts: 31822 (1422406133679,1422406165501)
Time elapsed for ints: 39663 (1422406165502,1422406205165)
Time elapsed for longs: 37232 (1422406205165,1422406242397)
0
Pass 3
Time elapsed for shorts: 30392 (1422406242398,1422406272790)
Time elapsed for ints: 37949 (1422406272791,1422406310740)
Time elapsed for longs: 37634 (1422406310741,1422406348375)
0
Pass 4
Time elapsed for shorts: 31303 (1422406348376,1422406379679)
Time elapsed for ints: 36583 (1422406379680,1422406416263)
Time elapsed for longs: 38730 (1422406416264,1422406454994)
0

C:\JavaTools>java -version
java version "1.7.0_65"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_65-b19)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.65-b04, mixed mode)

Answer 2

long  64 –9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9 ,223,372,036,854,775,807 
int   32 –2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 
short 16 –32,768 to 32,767 
byte   8 –128 to 127 

Use what you need, I would think shorts are rarely used due to the small range and it is in big-endian format.

Any performance gain would be minimal, but like I said if your application requires a range more then that of a short go with int. The long type may be too extremly large for you; but again it all depends on your application.

You should only use short if you have a concern over space (memory) otherwise use int (in most cases). If you are creating arrays and such try it out by declaring arrays of type int and short. Short will use 1/2 of the space as opposed to the int. But if you run the tests based on speed / performance you will see little to no difference (if you are dealing with Arrays), in addition, the only thing you save is space.

Also being that a commentor mentioned long because a long is 64 bits. You will not be able to store the size of a long in 4 bytes (notice the range of long).