Re: Efficient Java Programming
bencoe@gmail.com wrote:
Most things require optimization, it's a ridiculous thing to ignore. I
think a previous poster suggested, you should at the very least try to
minimize the order of operation for tasks... For instance, if you're
sorting, make sure you use something like quick sort that's nlogn, if
you're searching a large list, try to use binary search which is
logn... I strongly disagree with people who would suggest structure
over efficiency, since these two things have no reason to be ad odds
with each other.
A lot of reading isn't a necessity to get started writing efficient
code, just learn a bit about the order of operation of common tasks...
especially when you're working with large datasets.
But there's good optimization and bad optimization. I had a boss refuse to
let me fix an O(n-squared) algorithm and insisted that I optimize without
changing the algorithm. He then tried to withhold my fee because the program
was too slow.
The problem was that I wanted to fix the algorithm (good optimization) and he
wanted to speed up the bad algorithm (bad optimization).
When the company realized that I had provided a solution, trained the other
programmer in it, and that someone else had caused the problem, I got my fee.
The problem with saying, "I want my program to be efficient" is that people
focus on micro-optimization. You might buy 10% improvement by
micro-optimization after the fact, but of course the JVM is probably already
taking care of that kind of optimization for you. You might buy 10,000%
improvement over some data sets by the correct choice of algorithm in the
design phase.
--
Lew