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Add an ASCII (single-byte) fast path in String::push #20079

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Merged
merged 2 commits into from
Dec 22, 2014

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SimonSapin
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String::push(&mut self, ch: char) currently has a single code path that calls Char::encode_utf8. This adds a fast path for ASCII chars, which are represented as a single byte in UTF-8.

Benchmarks of stage1 libcollections at the intermediate commit show that the fast path very significantly improves the performance of repeatedly pushing an ASCII char, but does not significantly affect the performance for a non-ASCII char (where the fast path is not taken).

bench_push_char_one_byte                  59552 ns/iter (+/- 2132) = 167 MB/s
bench_push_char_one_byte_with_fast_path    6563 ns/iter (+/- 658) = 1523 MB/s
bench_push_char_two_bytes                 71520 ns/iter (+/- 3541) = 279 MB/s
bench_push_char_two_bytes_with_slow_path  71452 ns/iter (+/- 4202) = 279 MB/s
bench_push_str_one_byte                   38910 ns/iter (+/- 2477) = 257 MB/s

A benchmark of pushing a one-byte-long &str is added for comparison, but its performance has varied a lot lately. (When the input is fixed, s.push_str("x") could be used just as well as s.push('x').)

`String::push(&mut self, ch: char)` currently has a single code path
that calls `Char::encode_utf8`.
Perhaps it could be faster for ASCII `char`s, which are represented as
a single byte in UTF-8.

This commit leaves the method unchanged,
adds a copy of it with the fast path,
and adds benchmarks to compare them.

Results show that the fast path very significantly improves the performance
of repeatedly pushing an ASCII `char`,
but does not significantly affect the performance for a non-ASCII `char`
(where the fast path is not taken).

Output of `make check-stage1-collections NO_REBUILD=1 PLEASE_BENCH=1 TESTNAME=string::tests::bench_push`

```
test string::tests::bench_push_char_one_byte                 ... bench:     59552 ns/iter (+/- 2132) = 167 MB/s
test string::tests::bench_push_char_one_byte_with_fast_path  ... bench:      6563 ns/iter (+/- 658) = 1523 MB/s
test string::tests::bench_push_char_two_bytes                ... bench:     71520 ns/iter (+/- 3541) = 279 MB/s
test string::tests::bench_push_char_two_bytes_with_slow_path ... bench:     71452 ns/iter (+/- 4202) = 279 MB/s
test string::tests::bench_push_str                           ... bench:        24 ns/iter (+/- 2)
test string::tests::bench_push_str_one_byte                  ... bench:     38910 ns/iter (+/- 2477) = 257 MB/s
```

A benchmark of pushing a one-byte-long `&str` is added for comparison,
but its performance [has varied a lot lately](
rust-lang#19640 (comment)).
(When the input is fixed, `s.push_str("x")` could be used
instead of `s.push('x')`.)
@rust-highfive
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Thanks for the pull request, and welcome! The Rust team is excited to review your changes, and you should hear from @brson (or someone else) soon.

If any changes to this PR are deemed necessary, please add them as extra commits. This ensures that the reviewer can see what has changed since they last reviewed the code. The way Github handles out-of-date commits, this should also make it reasonably obvious what issues have or haven't been addressed. Large or tricky changes may require several passes of review and changes.

Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for more information.

@MatejLach
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Hmm...Why is rust-highfive being invoked here, even trough @SimonSapin isn't a new contributor?

alexcrichton added a commit to alexcrichton/rust that referenced this pull request Dec 21, 2014
`String::push(&mut self, ch: char)` currently has a single code path that calls `Char::encode_utf8`. This adds a fast path for ASCII `char`s, which are represented as a single byte in UTF-8.

Benchmarks of stage1 libcollections at the intermediate commit show that the fast path very significantly improves the performance of repeatedly pushing an ASCII `char`, but does not significantly affect the performance for a non-ASCII `char` (where the fast path is not taken).

```
bench_push_char_one_byte                  59552 ns/iter (+/- 2132) = 167 MB/s
bench_push_char_one_byte_with_fast_path    6563 ns/iter (+/- 658) = 1523 MB/s
bench_push_char_two_bytes                 71520 ns/iter (+/- 3541) = 279 MB/s
bench_push_char_two_bytes_with_slow_path  71452 ns/iter (+/- 4202) = 279 MB/s
bench_push_str_one_byte                   38910 ns/iter (+/- 2477) = 257 MB/s
```

A benchmark of pushing a one-byte-long `&str` is added for comparison, but its performance [has varied a lot lately](rust-lang#19640 (comment)). (When the input is fixed, `s.push_str("x")` could be used just as well as `s.push('x')`.)
@bors bors merged commit e40a81b into rust-lang:master Dec 22, 2014
@SimonSapin SimonSapin deleted the string_push_ascii_fast_path branch December 24, 2014 12:17
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6 participants