This page is for Scala performance coding hints that should be used for performance critical code, such as the repetitive places in the Daffodil runtime module.
Avoid Unnecessary Allocation
Many things in Scala cause allocation of objects on the heap. This involves quite a lot of overhead to allocate the object (which has extra locations in it beyond the members), initialize memory, call the constructor, etc.
Measurements have often shown allocation to be a large cost, so there is a bunch of techniques for avoiding excess allocation.
Avoid Return Objects and Tuples
These are often used to pass information back to the caller of a more complex nature, but then are discarded.
The alternative is to pass in a mutable object that is filled in by the called method. (See OnStack/LocalStack below about where that mutable object might come from.)
For the very common case of wanting to return an optional result, e.g., where you would want to return Option\[T], instead return a Maybe\[T] for objects, and use MaybeInt, MaybeLong, etc. for numbers. See below about avoiding Option type.
Avoid Option Type - Use Maybe Family of Types
Scala's Option type (Some, None) involves a heap-allocated object to represent the Some case. Furthermore, if you make a
val foo: Option[Int] = Some(5)
That's two objects. Because the 5 has to be boxed so that it can appear in the generic "collection" type Some.
We have a AnyVal-derived family of Maybe types. There are specialized variants for the unboxed types like Int
val foo: MaybeInt = MaybeInt(5) val bar: MaybeInt = MaybeInt.Nope
For objects, the basic
val foo : Maybe[String] = One("foobar")
However, see below about MStack and generic collections.
Avoid Generic Collections of Unboxed Types
val boxedInts = new ArrayBuffer(len) // adding an Int allocates a box every time. Accessing an Int discards the box. var unboxedInts = new Array[Int](len) // Non allocating - note var idea - in case you need to resize it.
Use MStack, avoid mutable.Stack
We need lots of stacks, and since Scala's general stacks are generic collections, we created our own non-boxing flavors:
- MStack.Of\[T] - generic
- MStack.OfInt - stack of Int - non-boxing
- MStack.OfMaybe\[T] - doesn't create box for the Maybe object. Uses null for Nope, and a regular object reference for One.
- However, MStackOfMaybe\[Int] will box and unbox the Int
Allocate on "the stack" Using OnStack and LocalStack
TBD: See the definitions of these. These make it convenient to reuse objects in recursive code, as is common in Daffodil. A small pool of reusable objects is maintained per thread. Accessing one causes it to either be created, or an existing one initialized. They get put back on exit of scope, and Scala 2.11's macros are used to avoid allocating closure objects as well.