Memory efficient, low overhead replacement for String in Java

Question

After reading answers on this old question, I'm a bit curious to know if there are any frameworks now, that provide for storing large no.(millions) of small size(15-25 chars long) Strings more efficiently than java.lang.String.

If possible I would like to store represent the string using byte[] instead of char[].

My String(s) are going to be constants & I don't really require numerous utility methods as provided by java.lang.String class.

Answer 1

Java 6 does this with -XX:+UseCompressedStrings which is on by default in some updates.

Its not in Java 5.0 or 7. It is still listed as on by default, but its not actually supported in Java 7. :P

Depending on what you want to do you could write your own classes, but if you only have a few 100 MBs of Strings I suspect its not worth it.