Thread: Array with long size

I remember, recently here was a topic where someone was asking about why arrays can't have long sizes. Well, it's obvious, that we can't write, say, new byte[longValueGoesHere]. But what would happen if we execute the following code:

ByteArrayOutputStream stream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
byte[] array = new byte[Integer.MAX_VALUE];
 
stream.write(array);
stream.write(array);
 
byte[] bigArray = stream.toByteArray();
System.out.println(bigArray.length);

I can't do this experiment on my machine, 'cause Integer.MAX_VALUE > 2,000,000,000, and I don't have 2 GB of memory to organize sufficient heap.

Originally Posted by angstrem

But what would happen if we execute the following code:

Have a look at the source code for ByteArrayOutputStream. It's located wherever you have Java installed in an archive called src.zip.

write(byte[]) is actually an OutputStream method, but it calls the ByteArrayOutputStream method write(byte[],int,int). Then write() calls ensureCapacity(), and ensureCapacity() calls grow(). Now grow() will throw an OutOfMemoryError sometimes...

The source code documents the simple code in the last two mentioned methods with the interesting comment "// overflow-conscious code" and it's interesting to figure out exactly what the author meant. Also ensureCapacity() does document exactly when you can expect an OutOfMemoryError, and it turns out that you'll get the error however much RAM you have.

Thank you. I see... So they explicitly check whether int is in range.

You're welcome. Yes, grow sets newCapacity=oldCapacity<<1 and then checks that newCapacity has not "wrapped around" and become negative.