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Serialization Optimization Pitfalls

In a response to a recent JavaLobby thread, Tom Hawtin looks at optimization of serialization and decides that you shouldn't do it.

The JavaLobby post describes a few different options for optimization and found that by using the Externalizable interface, instead of Serializable, yields significant performance gains (up to 55% in one version of the JDK). Hatwin noted some flaws in the microbenchmark, most significantly:

Serializable objects that implement Externalizable do not have fields included in their class descriptors. Not a lot of people know that. The descriptions are used if there is no writeObject/readObject method and for defaultReadObject and readFields. So, for fairness, the fields for the writeObject/readObject version should be marked as transient.

After running his updated microbenchmark he finds four conclusions:

  • Don't use Externalizable
  • Do reuse streams
  • Implementing writeObject and readObject by hand can improve performance
  • JVMs get better at serialization with each release

In a follow up to his benchmark, Hatwin finds a small optimization that is valuable. He notes that calling ObjectStreamClass.lookup on all classes that you are going to serialize, and assigning the results to static fields, will provide a boost. The boost comes from the fact that the soft reference cache used by serialization will never miss if you hold on to a reference. He has not yet updated his benchmarks to show the impact on it.

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