Java Performance - ArrayLists versus Arrays for lots of fast reads

Question

I have a program where I need to make 100,000 to 1,000,000 random-access reads to a List-like object in as little time as possible (as in milliseconds) for a cellular automa

Answer 1

One possibility would be to re-implement ArrayList (it's not that hard), but expose the backing array via a lock/release call cycle. This gets you convenience for your writes, but exposes the array for a large series of read/write operations that you know in advance won't impact the array size. If the list is locked, add/delete is not allowed - just get/set.

for example:

  SomeObj[] directArray = myArrayList.lockArray();
  try{
    // myArrayList.add(), delete() would throw an illegal state exception
    for (int i = 0; i < 50000; i++){
      directArray[i] += 1;
    }
  } finally {
    myArrayList.unlockArray();
  }

This approach continues to encapsulate the array growth/etc... behaviors of ArrayList.