boolean[] vs. BitSet: Which is more efficient?

Question

What is more efficient in terms of memory and CPU usage — an array of booleans or a BitSet? Specific BitSet methods are not used, only get/set/clear (==, =, Arrays.fill respectively for an array).

Answer 1

It depends as always. Yes BitSet is more memory efficent, but as soon as you require multithreaded access boolean[] might be the better choice. For example for computing primes you only set the boolean to true and therefore you don't really need synchronization. Hans Boehm has written some paper about this and the same technique can be used for marking nodes in graph.

Answer 2

Here you can see a Memory/Time benchmark comparing a boolean[][] trianguar matrix versus BitSet[] triangular matrix.

I create, set and read the (size * (size-1) / 2) values and compare memory usage and time...

Hope this help...

Here the code... (just a quikly dirty test code, sorry ;)

import java.util.BitSet;
import java.util.Date;

public class BooleanBitSetProfiler {

    Runtime runtime;
    int sum = 0;
    public void doIt() {

        runtime = Runtime.getRuntime();
        long[][] bitsetMatrix = new long[30][2];
        long[][] booleanMatrix = new long[30][2];
        int size = 1000;
        for (int i = 0; i < booleanMatrix.length; i++) {
            booleanMatrix[i] = testBooleanMatrix(size);
            bitsetMatrix[i] = testBitSet(size);
            size += 2000;
        }
        int debug = 1;
        for (int j = 0; j < booleanMatrix.length; j++){
            System.out.print(booleanMatrix[j][0] + ";");
        }
        System.out.println();
        for (int j = 0; j < booleanMatrix.length; j++){
            System.out.print(booleanMatrix[j][1] + ";");
        }
        System.out.println();
        for (int j = 0; j < bitsetMatrix.length; j++){
            System.out.print(bitsetMatrix[j][0] + ";");
        }
        System.out.println();
        for (int j = 0; j < bitsetMatrix.length; j++){
            System.out.print(bitsetMatrix[j][1] + ";");
        }
        System.out.println();
    }

    private long memory () {
        return runtime.totalMemory() - runtime.freeMemory();
    }
    private long[] testBooleanMatrix(int size) {
        runtime.gc();
        long startTime = new Date().getTime();
        long startMemory = memory();
        boolean[][] matrix = new boolean[size][];
        for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
            matrix[i] = new boolean[size - i - 1];
        }
        long creationMemory = memory();
        long creationTime = new Date().getTime();
        for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)  {
            for (int j = 0; j < matrix[i].length; j++) {
                matrix[i][j] = i % 2 == 0;
            }
        }
        long setMemory = memory();
        long setTime = new Date().getTime();
        for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)  {
            for (int j = 0; j < matrix[i].length; j++) {
                if (matrix[i][j]) sum++;
            }
        }
        long readTime = new Date().getTime();
        System.out.println("Boolean[][] (size " + size + ")");
        System.out.println("Creation memory " + printMem(creationMemory-startMemory) + ", set memory " + printMem(setMemory-startMemory));
        System.out.println("Creation time " + printTime(creationTime-startTime) + ", set time " + printTime(setTime - creationTime) + " read time " + printTime(readTime - setTime) + "\n");
        runtime.gc();
        return new long[]{(setMemory-startMemory)/(1024*1024), (readTime-startTime)};
    }
    private long[] testBitSet(int size) {
        runtime.gc();
        long startTime = new Date().getTime();
        long startMemory = memory();
        BitSet[] matrix = new BitSet[size];
        for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
            matrix[i] = new BitSet(size - i - 1);
        }
        long creationMemory = memory();
        long creationTime = new Date().getTime();
        for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)  {
            for (int j = 0; j < matrix[i].size(); j++) {
                matrix[i].set(j, (i % 2 == 0));
            }
        }
        long setMemory = memory();
        long setTime = new Date().getTime();
        for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)  {
            for (int j = 0; j < matrix[i].size(); j++) {
                if (matrix[i].get(j)) sum++;
            }
        }
        long readTime = new Date().getTime();
        System.out.println("BitSet[] (size " + size + ")");
        System.out.println("Creation memory " + printMem(creationMemory-startMemory) + ", set memory " + printMem(setMemory-startMemory));
        System.out.println("Creation time " + printTime(creationTime-startTime) + ", set time " + printTime(setTime - creationTime) + " read time " + printTime(readTime - setTime) + "\n");
        runtime.gc();
        return new long[]{(setMemory-startMemory)/(1024*1024), (readTime-startTime)};
    }

    private String printMem(long mem) {
        mem = mem / (1024*1024);
        return mem + "MB";
    }
    private String printTime(long milis) {
        int seconds = (int) (milis / 1000);
        milis = milis % 1000;
        return seconds > 0 ? seconds + "s " + milis + "ms" : milis + "ms";
    }
}