Fastest way to determine if an integer's square root is an integer

Question

I\'m looking for the fastest way to determine if a long value is a perfect square (i.e. its square root is another integer):

1. I\'ve done it the ea

Answer 1

This is the fastest Java implementation I could come up with, using a combination of techniques suggested by others in this thread.

• Mod-256 test
• Inexact mod-3465 test (avoids integer division at the cost of some false positives)
• Floating-point square root, round and compare with input value

I also experimented with these modifications but they did not help performance:

• Additional mod-255 test
• Dividing the input value by powers of 4
• Fast Inverse Square Root (to work for high values of N it needs 3 iterations, enough to make it slower than the hardware square root function.)

public class SquareTester {

    public static boolean isPerfectSquare(long n) {
        if (n < 0) {
            return false;
        } else {
            switch ((byte) n) {
            case -128: case -127: case -124: case -119: case -112:
            case -111: case -103: case  -95: case  -92: case  -87:
            case  -79: case  -71: case  -64: case  -63: case  -60:
            case  -55: case  -47: case  -39: case  -31: case  -28:
            case  -23: case  -15: case   -7: case    0: case    1:
            case    4: case    9: case   16: case   17: case   25:
            case   33: case   36: case   41: case   49: case   57:
            case   64: case   65: case   68: case   73: case   81:
            case   89: case   97: case  100: case  105: case  113:
            case  121:
                long i = (n * INV3465) >>> 52;
                if (! good3465[(int) i]) {
                    return false;
                } else {
                    long r = round(Math.sqrt(n));
                    return r*r == n; 
                }
            default:
                return false;
            }
        }
    }

    private static int round(double x) {
        return (int) Double.doubleToRawLongBits(x + (double) (1L << 52));
    }

    /** 3465-1 modulo 264 */
    private static final long INV3465 = 0x8ffed161732e78b9L;

    private static final boolean[] good3465 =
        new boolean[0x1000];

    static {
        for (int r = 0; r < 3465; ++ r) {
            int i = (int) ((r * r * INV3465) >>> 52);
            good3465[i] = good3465[i+1] = true;
        }
    }

}