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Getting the most from map data structures in Android

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Abstract

A map is a data structure that is commonly used to store data as key–value pairs and retrieve data as keys, values, or key–value pairs. Although Java offers different map implementation classes, Android SDK offers other implementations supposed to be more efficient than HashMap: ArrayMap and SparseArray variants (SparseArray, LongSparseArray, SparseIntArray, SparseLongArray, and SparseBooleanArray). Yet, the performance of these implementations in terms of CPU time, memory usage, and energy consumption is lacking in the official Android documentation; although saving CPU, memory, and energy is a major concern of users wanting to increase battery life. Consequently, we study the use of map implementations by Android developers in two ways. First, we perform an observational study of 5713 Android apps in GitHub. Second, we conduct a survey to assess developers’ perspective on Java and Android map implementations. Then, we perform an experimental study comparing HashMap, ArrayMap, and SparseArray variants map implementations in terms of CPU time, memory usage, and energy consumption. We conclude with guidelines for choosing among the map implementations: HashMap is preferable over ArrayMap to improve energy efficiency of apps, and SparseArray variants should be used instead of HashMap and ArrayMap when keys are primitive types.

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Notes

  1. https://youtu.be/Y2VF8tmLFHw

  2. https://developer.android.com/topic/billions/index.html

  3. https://developer.android.com/topic/performance/index.html

  4. https://developer.android.com/reference/android/util/ArrayMap.html

  5. https://developer.android.com/reference/android/util/SparseArray.html

  6. https://developer.android.com/reference/android/util/LongSparseArray.html

  7. https://developer.android.com/reference/android/util/SparseIntArray.html

  8. https://developer.android.com/reference/android/util/SparseLongArray.html

  9. https://developer.android.com/reference/android/util/SparseBooleanArray.html

  10. https://play.google.com/store/apps

  11. http://www.ptidej.net/downloads/replications/ese17a/

  12. https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/HashMap.html

  13. https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/LinkedHashMap.html

  14. https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/TreeMap.html

  15. https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html

  16. http://www.tiepie.com/en/products/Oscilloscopes/Handyscope_HS5

  17. http://www.eevblog.com/projects/ucurrent/

  18. The mobile phone has to be rooted first.

  19. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ruben.nexus4usbcharging

  20. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/effsize/

  21. https://developer.android.com/studio/test/monkeyrunner/index.html

  22. https://developer.android.com/studio/profile/traceview.html

  23. https://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-5.0-changes.html

  24. https://developer.android.com/about/versions/marshmallow/android-6.0-changes.html

  25. https://developer.android.com/about/versions/nougat/android-7.0-changes.html

  26. https://developer.android.com/about/versions/oreo/android-8.0-changes.html

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Génie Informatique et Génie Logiciel, École Polytechnique de Montréal, (Pavillon Lassonde) Succ. Centre Ville, 2700, chemin de la Tour, H3T 1J4, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Rubén Saborido, Rodrigo Morales, Foutse Khomh, Yann-Gaël Guéhéneuc & Giuliano Antoniol

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  1. Rubén Saborido
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  2. Rodrigo Morales
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  3. Foutse Khomh
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  4. Yann-Gaël Guéhéneuc
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  5. Giuliano Antoniol
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rubén Saborido.

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Communicated by: Daniel Amyot

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Saborido, R., Morales, R., Khomh, F. et al. Getting the most from map data structures in Android. Empir Software Eng 23, 2829–2864 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-018-9607-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-018-9607-8

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