Hi! I would like to know how I can measure the amount of memory needed.
The best way, I think, to estimate is to create thousands of objects similar to the ones you'll have and see how much they occupy. You can use Runtime.totalMemory() minus Runtime.freeMemory() for that. --
KlausWuestefeld
The cost of loading a class is almost impossible to estimate - it depends on the structures the VM creates and the machine code that is generated (which, in the presence of adaptive optimization, depends on runtime measurements!).
The cost of a single object is much easier to estimate. In the case of
HotSpot, it goes like this:
-2 words for object header (flags, class reference, object identity)
-2 words for every non-static long or double field
-1 word for every non-static field of any other type (including object types)
A word is 4 bytes (at least on 32-bit machines).
Arrays have some fixed overhead plus the size of the contents (calculated the obvious way: char arrays take up 2 bytes per element, int arrays 4 bytes per element etc).
This is the raw object size. You have to add allocation slack for unused/fragmented heap space (not sure if
HotSpot additionally pads object sizes to 16 byte boundaries or something, I think it doesn't). --
StefanReich