Primitives and Objects Benchmark in Java

by Szymon LipiƄski
tags: benchmark java

I was told many times that Java primitives are better and faster than objects, but I haven’t found any benchmarks for that. So I made my own. I was trying to check how much slower it is to use the objects like Integer, Long, Double instead of int, long, or double.

The Benchmark Code

The benchmark code is really simple, I’m not gonna publish it here. First of all I’m not fully happy with the code, it could be a little bit nicer. Another reason is that if somebody wants to improve the results, then the implementation could be done some other way and this could be much better.

The main test function looks like this:

    public void test(int maxLoops) {
      int max = maxLoops;

      for (int index = 0; index < max; index++) {
          int number = index * index + index * index;
      }
    }

The above is the int version. The Integer version looks like this:

public void test(int maxLoops) {
    Integer max = maxLoops;

    for (Integer index = 0; index < max; index++) {
        Integer number = index * index + index * index;
    }
}

Other versions are very similar, just leave the int parameter as it is and change the rest with the type you want.

There is some logic for running the tests, but it is not very important.

The Test Machine

My test machine is my old notebook.

    64bit Ubuntu Linux 10.10 (maverick)
    Linux 2.6.35-23-generic
    4GB RAM
    Intel Core2 Duo T8100 @ 2.10GHz

Java is a normal Java from repositories, installed automatically by apt-get something.

java version "1.6.0_22"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_22-b04)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 17.1-b03, mixed mode)

The Results

The Dry Run

First of all I simply run that code, this would be quite not optimal as Java Virtual Machine can optimize that later by recompiling the functions. These should be quite useless results, but it should be nice to observe the improvements.

First Two Runs

I run the test functions two times, to check if JVM can optimize something.

Variable Type First Run [ms] Second Run [ms] Difference [ms] Difference [%]
int 5 1 -4 -80.00
Integer 2686 2398 -288 -10.72
double 541 542 +1 +0.18
Double 2399 2383 -16 -0.67
long 66 66 0 0.00
Long 2408 2402 -6 -0.25

The difference between primitives and object types:

Variable Types First Run Second Run
int / Integer 537.00 2398.00
double / Double 4.43 4.40
long / Long 36.48 36.39

Numbers here shows how many times slower are the object versions.

The Conclusions

Java really optimized some of the functions between the runs, the biggest difference between the runs was in int case.

As you can see, object versions are really slower than appropriate primitive ones.

I really wasn’t expecting so huge difference in the int/Integer case.

Let’s Heat That Up

Java Virtual Machine has something called HotSpot:

HotSpot is the primary Java Virtual Machine for desktops and servers, produced by Oracle Corporation. It features techniques such as just-in-time compilation and adaptive optimization designed to improve performance.

Wikipedia Hot Spot

To check that, you have to run the code you want. This allows JVM to gather enough information to optimize the code. I’m interested in the difference in code that runs for ages, so let’s give the HotSpot a chance and run the test code enough times.

Test procedure now looks like this:

Results for the first and second bigger run:

Variable Type First Run [ms] Second Run [ms] Average
int 1 1 1
Integer 2399 2405 2402
double 247 242 245
Double 2448 2367 2408
long 64 66 65
Long 2404 2430 2417

As both times are very similar, I just took the average of both measurements.

Comparing the HotSpot optimization

Variable Type First Dry Run [ms] Second HotSpot Run [ms] Difference [ms] Difference [%]
int 5 1 4 80.00%
Integer 2686 2402 284 10.57%
double 541 245 296 54.71%
Double 2399 2408 -9 -0.38%
long 66 65 1 1.52%
Long 2408 2417 -9 -0.37%

So it looks like the HotSpot made quite a good job optimizing the int and the double version. The long one also looks nice now, but not so impressing.

The Final Results

What is the difference between the primitives and the objects after the HotSpot play?

Variable Types Ratio
int / Integer 2402.00
double / Double 9.83
long / Long 37.18

Well, I wasn’t expecting so huge difference. It seems that primitives are really faster. What’s more, int is really faster than Integer. The difference between doubles and longs is not so big, but it is still there.

The Final Conclusion

Yes, you should really use primitives, wherever you can. Of course you can’t use that everywhere, but if you can - you should.