RFR 8135248: Add utility methods to check indexes and ranges

[Stephen Colebourne]

While I think I understand the need for the lambda/exception interface
(backwards compatibility) it is definitely weird as a method
signature.

It would seem very worthwhile to add overloaded versions of each of
these methods that do not have the OutOfBoundsToException in the
argument list. Instead, these overloads would throw a "standard"
exception. Such methods would then be much more amenable to just being
dropped into existing application code, where the precise exception
that is thrown is less of a concern.

Stephen



On 21 September 2015 at 14:42, Paul Sandoz <paul.sandoz at oracle.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Please review the following which adds methods to Arrays to check indexes and ranges:
>
>   https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8135248
>   http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~psandoz/jdk9/JDK-8135248-array-check-index-range/webrev/
>
> The original motivation was an intrinsic method, Arrays.checkIndex, to check if an index is within bounds. Such an intrinsic guides HotSpot towards better optimisations for bounds checks using one unsigned comparison instead of two signed comparisons, and better eliding of integer to long conversions when an index is used to create an offset for Unsafe access. The end result is more efficient array access especially so from within unrolled loops. The VarHandles work will use Arrays.checkIndex for array access.
>
> A follow up issue [1] will track the intrinsification of Arrays.checkIndex.
>
> We thought it would be opportunistic to support two further common use-cases for sub-range checks, Arrays.checkFromToIndex and Arrays.
> checkFromIndexSize. There is no current plan to intrinsify these methods.
>
> Bounds checking is not difficult but it can be easy to make trivial mistakes. Thus it is advantageous to consolidate such checks not just from an optimization perspective but from a correctness and security/integrity perspective.
>
> There are many areas in the JDK where such checks are performed. A follow up issue [2] will track updates to use the new methods.
>
> The main challenge for these new methods is to design in such a way that
>
> 1) existing use-cases can still report the same set of exceptions with the same messages;
> 2) method byte code size is not unduly increased, thus perturbing inlining; and
> 3) there is a reasonable path for any future support of long indexes.
>
> Paul.
>
> [1] https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8042997
> [2] https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8135250