Java Stack explanation

I. Preparation of knowledge

In Java, variables are divided into basic data types and reference types, which are allocated within the stack, are automatically freed from scope, and are allocated within a heap or constant pool (such as string constants and basic data type constants) and need to be new. Some basic types of variables and object reference variables defined in the function are allocated in the stack memory of the function. Heap memory is used to hold objects and arrays created by new. arrays and objects become garbage when no reference variable points to it, can no longer be used, but still occupy memory and are freed by the garbage collector at a later indeterminate time. This is also the main reason for the memory of Java comparison, in fact, the variables in the stack point to the heap memory variables, this is a pointer in Java.

Here we are primarily concerned with stacks, heaps, and constant pools, which can be shared for objects in stacks and constant pools, and not for objects in the heap. The data size and life cycle in the stack can be determined, and the data disappears when no references point to the data. The garbage collector is responsible for the collection of objects in the heap, so the size and life cycle do not need to be determined and have great flexibility.

For a string equal to equals, there is always only one copy in the constant pool, with multiple copies in the heap.

For member variables and local variables: member variables are external to the method, variables defined internally by the class, and local variables are variables defined inside a method or statement block. Local variables must be initialized. The formal parameter is a local variable, and the data for the local variable exists in the stack memory. Local variables in the stack memory disappear as the method disappears.

Member variables are stored in objects in the heap and are collected by the garbage collector.

The size and number of variables in the stack can affect the file size of the EXE, but it is faster. The size of the variable in the heap is not the same as the EXE size, but allocating and freeing takes much longer than the time it takes to allocate memory in the stack.

Two. Stack sharing

int a = 3;
int b = 3;
The compiler processes int a = 3 First, it creates a reference to a variable in the stack, and then finds out if there is a value of 3 in the stack, and if it does not, it stores the 3 in and then points a to 3. then the int b = 3 is processed, and after the reference variable of B is created, because there are already 3 values in the stack, B points directly to 3. In this case, A and B both point to 3. At this point, if you make a=4 again, then the compiler will re-search the stack for 4 values, if not, then store 4 in, and a point to 4; Therefore the change of a value does not affect the value of B. It is important to note that this sharing of data with two object references also points to an object where this share is different, because the modification of a does not affect B, which is done by the compiler, which facilitates space saving. An object reference variable modifies the internal state of the object, affecting another object reference variable.

Three. JVM

The JVM is a stack-based virtual machine. The JVM allocates a stack for each newly created thread. In other words, for a Java program, it runs through the operation of the stack. The stack holds the state of the thread in frames. The JVM operates on the stack in only two ways: stack and stack operations in frames.
We know that the method that a thread is executing is called the current method of this thread. We may not know that the frame used by the current method is called the current frame. When a thread activates a Java method, the JVM presses a new frame into the Java stack of threads. This frame naturally becomes the current frame. During the execution of this method, this frame is used to hold parameters, local variables, intermediate calculation procedures, and other data. This frame is similar to the concept of the activity record in the compilation principle.
From this allocation mechanism in Java, the stack can be understood as a stack is a storage area that the operating system establishes for a process, or a thread (a thread in a multithreaded operating system) for this thread, which has an advanced post-out feature.
Each Java application uniquely corresponds to a single JVM instance, and each instance uniquely corresponds to one heap. All instances or arrays of classes created by the application in the run are placed in this heap and shared by all threads of the application. Unlike C + +, allocating heap memory is automatically initialized in Java. The storage space for all objects in Java is allocated in the heap, but the reference to this object is allocated on the stack, that is, allocating memory from two places when an object is built, memory allocated in the heap actually establishes the object, and the memory allocated on the stack is just a pointer to the heap object (reference) Only.

----to these two concepts of unknown long, and finally found a good article, bring to share

1. Stacks and heaps (heap) are places that Java uses to store data in RAM. Unlike C + +, Java automatically manages stacks and heaps, and programmers cannot directly set up stacks or heaps.

2. the advantage of the stack is that the access speed is faster than the heap, second only to the registers directly in the CPU. However, the disadvantage is that the size and lifetime of the data in the stack must be deterministic and inflexible. In addition, the stack data can be shared, see 3rd. The advantage of the heap is that the memory size can be allocated dynamically, and the lifetime does not have to tell the compiler beforehand that the Java garbage collector automatically collects the data that is no longer in use. However, the disadvantage is that the access speed is slower due to the dynamic allocation of memory at run time.

3. There are two kinds of data types in Java.

One is the basic type (primitive types), a total of 8 kinds, namely int, short, long, byte, float, Double,boolean, char (note, and no basic type of string). The definition of this type is through such as int a = 3; Long B = 255L; the form to be defined, called an automatic variable. It is worth noting that the automatic variable is a literal value, not an instance of a class, that is not a reference to a class, there is no class here. such as int a = 3; Here A is a reference to the int type, pointing to the literal value of 3. The data of these literals, due to the size of the known, the lifetime of the known (these values are fixed in a program block, the program block exits, the field value disappears), for the sake of speed, it exists in the stack.

In addition, the stack has a very important particularity, is that there is data in the stack can be shared. Let's say we define both:

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int a = 3;

int b = 3;

The compiler processes int a = 3 First, it creates a reference to a variable in the stack, and then looks for an address with a literal value of 3, finds an address that holds the literal value of 3, and then points A to the address of 3. then the int b = 3 is processed, and after the reference variable of B is created, B is pointed directly to the address of 3 because there are already 3 literals in the stack. In this case, A and B both point to 3.

It is particularly important to note that the reference to this literal is different from the reference to the class object. Assuming that a reference to two class objects points to an object at the same time, if an object reference variable modifies the internal state of the object, then another object reference variable will immediately reflect that change. Conversely, modifying its value by a reference to a literal value does not result in another case where a reference to that literal is changed. As in the example above, we define the value of a and B and then make a=4; then B will not be equal to 4 or equal to 3. Inside the compiler, when it encounters A=4, it will re-search the stack for a literal value of 4, and if not, re-open the value of the address 4, and if so, point a directly at the address. Therefore the change of a value does not affect the value of B.

The other is the wrapper class data, such as Integer, String, double, and so on, the corresponding basic data types are wrapped up class. These classes of data all exist in the heap, and Java uses the new () statement to tell the compiler that it is dynamically created as needed at run time, so it is more flexible, but the disadvantage is that it takes more time. 4. String is a special wrapper class data. That is, it can be created in the form of string str = newstring ("abc"), or in the form of string str = "abc" (In contrast, before JDK5.0, you have never seen an expression of integer i = 3; Because classes and literals are not generic, except for string. In JDK 5.0, this expression is possible! Because the compiler is in the background the integer i = new Integer (3) conversion. The former is the process of creating a canonical class, that is, in Java, everything is an object, and the object is an instance of the class, all created in the form of new (). Some classes in Java, such as the DateFormat class, can return a newly created class through the class's getinstance () method, which seems to violate this principle. actually otherwise The class uses a singleton pattern to return an instance of the class, except that the instance is created inside the class through new (), and getinstance () hides this detail from the outside. So why is the case in string str = "abc", not created by new (), a violation of the above principles? Actually, No.

5. About the internal work of string str = "abc". Inside Java, this statement is translated into the following steps:

(1) First define an object reference variable named str to the String class: String str;

(2) in the stack to find whether there is a value of "ABC" address, if not, then open a store with a literal "ABC" address, then create a new String Class object O, and the string value of O point to the address, and in the stack next to this address note the referenced object o. If you already have an address with a value of "ABC", look for the object o and return the address of O.

(3) Point Str to the address of the object o.

It is important to note that the string values in the generic string class are directly stored values. But like string str = "abc"; In this case, the string value is a reference to the data in the existing stack!

To better illustrate this problem, we can verify it by following several code.

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String str1 = "abc";

String str2 = "abc";

System.out.println (STR1==STR2); True

Note that we do not use Str1.equals (STR2) in this way, as this will compare the values of two strings for equality. = = number, as described in the JDK, returns true only if two references point to the same object. And what we're looking at here is whether str1 and str2 all point to the same object.

The result shows that the JVM created two references str1 and str2, but only one object was created, and two references pointed to the object.

Let's go further and change the above code to:

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String str1 = "abc";

String str2 = "abc";

str1 = "BCD";

System.out.println (str1 + "," +str2); BCD, ABC

System.out.println (STR1==STR2); False

This means that the change in the assignment results in a change in the class object reference, and str1 points to another new object! and str2 still points to the original object. In the example above, when we change the value of str1 to "BCD", the JVM discovers that there is no address for that value in the stack, opens up this address and creates a new object whose string value points to the address.

In fact, the string class is designed to be immutable (immutable) classes. If you want to change its value, yes, but the JVM silently creates a new object at run time based on the new value, and then returns the address of the object to the reference of the original class. This creation process is entirely automatic, but it takes up more time. In the environment that is more sensitive to time requirements, it will have some adverse effects.

Then modify the original code:

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String str1 = "abc";

String str2 = "abc";

str1 = "BCD";

String STR3 = str1;

System.out.println (STR3); Bcd

String STR4 = "BCD";

System.out.println (str1 = = STR4); True

STR3 a reference to this object points directly to the object that str1 points to (note that STR3 does not create a new object). When str1 changes its value, it creates a reference str4 of string and points to the new object created by str1 modifying the value. It can be found that this time STR4 also did not create a new object, thereby re-sharing the data in the stack.

Let's look at the following code again.

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String str1 = new String ("abc");

String str2 = "abc";

System.out.println (STR1==STR2); False creates two references. Two objects were created. Two references point to a different two objects, respectively.

String str1 = "abc";

String str2 = new String ("abc");

System.out.println (STR1==STR2); False

Two references were created. Two objects were created. Two references point to a different two objects, respectively.

The above two code shows that as long as new () is used to create the object, it is created in the heap, and its string is stored separately, even if the data in the stack is the same, it is not shared with the data in the stack.

6. The value of the data type wrapper class cannot be modified. Not only the value of the string class cannot be modified, but all data type wrapper classes cannot change their internal values.

7. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

(1) When we use a format definition class such as String Str= "abc", We always think of course that we have created the object str of the String class. Worry about traps! The object may not be created! The only certainty is that a reference to the string class was created. As to whether the reference is pointing to a new object, it must be considered in terms of context, unless you create a new object with a prominent way through the new () method. Therefore, it is more accurate to say that we have created a reference variable to the object of the String class str, which refers to a variable that points to a string class with the value "ABC". Being aware of this is helpful in troubleshooting bugs that are difficult to find in a program.

(2) The use of string str = "abc", in a way that can improve the speed of the program to a certain extent, because the JVM will automatically based on the actual data in the stack to determine whether it is necessary to create a new object. In the case of string str = new String ("abc"), the code creates a new object in the heap, regardless of whether the string value is equal or not, and it is necessary to create a new object, thereby aggravating the burden of the program. This idea should be the idea of the meta-mode, but it is not known whether the internal JDK implements this pattern.

(3) Use the Equals () method when comparing the values in the wrapper class, and use the = = when testing whether the references to the two wrapper classes point to the same object.

(4) Because of the immutable nature of the string class, you should consider using the StringBuffer class when the string variable needs to change its value frequently to improve program efficiency.

Java Stack explanation