RFR 8135248: Add utility methods to check indexes and ranges

[Peter Levart]

On 09/21/2015 05:22 PM, Peter Levart wrote:
> Hi Paul,
>
> It seems that all that is needed for performance is to intrinsify 
> static methods Integer.compareUnsigned(int, int) and 
> Long.compareUnsigned(long, long). Or would that not be enough? Then 
> perhaps explicit compare operations would suffice:
>
> public class Integer {
> ...
>     public static boolean unsignedLess(int a, int b);
>     public static boolean unsignedLessOrEqual(int a, int b);
>
> You could still have Arrays.checkIndex methods, but they could be pure 
> bytecode methods with standard exception types / messages. And if one 
> needs special exception types / messages, (s)he can use the 
> intrinsified comparison methods directly and imperative code to throw 
> the exception.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Regards, Peter

Or,

...have intrinsified method(s) in the form of:

public class Arrays {
...
     public static boolean isIndexValid(int i, int length);
     public static boolean isFromToIndexValid(int from, int to, int length);
     ...

... and pure bytecode checkXXXIndex methods implemented in terms of 
above but just for standard exceptions. Code throwing customized 
exceptions would use isXXXIndexValid methods and imperative code to 
construct and throw exception.

The question is whether boolean return from intrinsic method coupled 
with if statement in bytecode optimizes equally well as if the branch 
was in the intrinsified method itself.


Regards, Peter


>
> On 09/21/2015 03:42 PM, Paul Sandoz 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
>