Re: How to read a flat file quickly

From:
"John B. Matthews" <nospam@nospam.invalid>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Wed, 13 May 2009 21:52:14 -0400
Message-ID:
<nospam-4D1675.21521413052009@news.aioe.org>
In article
<4c786e0b-2a2d-4829-ab22-b9accfc99147@a5g2000pre.googlegroups.com>,
 tnorgd@gmail.com wrote:

OK, so I did some tests. Results are the following (for a part of my
data file):

1-A) Just to read lines:
while ((line = in.readLine()) != null);
takes 1.9 sec
1-B) readLine() + pattern.split(line) takes 7.0 sec

2) Just tokens (which does roughly what 1-A and 1-B do together):
while ((st.nextToken()) != StreamTokenizer.TT_EOF);
takes 6.6 sec

When I add parsing e.g. Integer.parseInt() and Double.parseDouble() in
both cases I end up around 10sec. Yes, I apparently I have to do
parsing also in the case with StreamTokenizer. My input contains
strings with digits (like "Johny17") which are parsed into two
distinct tokens. So I had to switch of parsing numbers within
StreamTokenizer and to do it on my own.

Some of you have suggested that I gain some speed by:
A) increasing buffer size: yes, around 10% effect
B) Changing from split("\\s+"") to a compiled pattern: this has almost
no effect.


Indeed, compiling such a short pattern has minimal benefit, but Eric
Sosman's parser suggestion may be worth the effort. I liked Daniel
Pitts' StreamTokenizer idea well enough to try it. It might be better
for creating a Double array:

<console>
Warmup: 30

Size: 5
RegEx: 19
Compiled: 3
Parse: 5
Token: 24

Size: 50
RegEx: 28
Compiled: 29
Parse: 14
Token: 61

Size: 500
RegEx: 280
Compiled: 276
Parse: 139
Token: 591

Size: 5000
RegEx: 3042
Compiled: 3007
Parse: 2038
Token: 8000
</console>

<code>
package cli;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.Reader;
import java.io.StreamTokenizer;
import java.io.StringReader;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Random;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

/** @author JBM*/
public class RCPTest {

    private static final Random random = new Random();

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        (new Warmup()).test(testString(1));
        System.out.println();
        for (int i = 1; i < 5; i++) {
            int padding = (int) Math.pow(10, i) / 2;
            System.out.println("Size: " + padding);
            String s = testString(padding);
            (new RegEx()).test(s);
            (new Compiled()).test(s);
            (new Parse()).test(s);
            (new Token()).test(s);
            System.out.println();
        }
    }

    private static String testString(int count) {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
            sb.append(random.nextInt());
            sb.append(" ");
        }
        return sb.toString();
    }
}

abstract class Test {

    public static final int COUNT = 1000;

    public void test(String in) {
        long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
        for (int i = 0; i < COUNT; i++) {
            split(in);
        }
        System.out.println(name()
            + (System.currentTimeMillis() - start));
    }

    public abstract String[] split(String in);

    public abstract String name();
}

class Warmup extends Test {

    public String[] split(String in) {
        return (new RegEx()).split(in);
    }

    public String name() {
        return "Warmup: ";
    }
}

class RegEx extends Test {

    public String[] split(String in) {
        return in.split("\\s+");
    }

    public String name() {
        return "RegEx: ";
    }
}

class Compiled extends Test {

    private static final Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\\s+");

    public String[] split(String in) {
        return p.split(in);
    }

    public String name() {
        return "Compiled: ";
    }
}

class Parse extends Test {

    public String[] split(String in) {
        List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        int len = in.length();
        int i = 0;
        char c;
        while (i < len) {
            c = in.charAt(i++);
            if (c == ' ' || i == len) {
                list.add(sb.toString());
                sb.delete(0, len - 1);
            } else {
                sb.append(c);
            }
        }
        return list.toArray(new String[0]);
    }

    public String name() {
        return "Parse: ";
    }
}

class Token extends Test {

    public String[] split(String in) {
        Reader reader = new StringReader(in);
        StreamTokenizer tokens = new StreamTokenizer(reader);
        List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
        double d;
        try {
            int token = tokens.nextToken();
            while (token != StreamTokenizer.TT_EOF) {
                d = tokens.nval;
                list.add(Double.toString(d));
                token = tokens.nextToken();
            }
            return list.toArray(new String[0]);
        } catch (IOException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace(System.err);
            return new String[0];
        }
    }

    public String name() {
        return "Token: ";
    }
}
</code>

--
John B. Matthews
trashgod at gmail dot com
<http://sites.google.com/site/drjohnbmatthews>

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