Java Performance Tuning

Jack Shirazi

Jan 2003 · "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

About this ebook

Performance has been an important issue for Java developers ever since the first version hit the streets. Over the years, Java performance has improved dramatically, but tuning is essential to get the best results, especially for J2EE applications. You can never have code that runs too fast.

Java Peformance Tuning, 2nd edition provides a comprehensive and indispensable guide to eliminating all types of performance problems. Using many real-life examples to work through the tuning process in detail, JPT shows how tricks such as minimizing object creation and replacing strings with arrays can really pay off in improving your code's performance.

Tuning J2EE applications bears many similarities to tuning J2SE apps, but important and specific considerations apply. For this reason, Java Performance Tuning, Second Edition includes four new chapters: a new chapter on J2EE application tuning in general followed by chapters on tuning JDBC, servlets and JSPs, and EJBs.

Java Performance Tuning offers common-sense advice about what to tune and what to leave alone, emphasizing techniques that provide big performance gains with minimal code restructuring. It gives you crucial guidance that helps you tune without destroying your program's architecture. Blindly changing things in an effort to make a program run faster is a great way to create buggy, unmaintainable code. Java Performance Tuning teaches you to work efficiently and effectively, resulting in code that is robust, maintainable, and fast.

Java Performance Tuning, Second Edition shows you how to:

• Create a performance plan
• Glean information about your program's behavior from profiling tools
• Identify bottlenecks before tuning
• Minimize the number of objects your program creates, particularly critical for J2EE applications
• Optimize the use of strings
• Avoid performance penalties from inefficient code
• Improve the behavior of loops and switches
• Optimize I/O behavior
• Use appropriate algorithms for sorting and other common tasks
• Use threads effectively
• Optimize the performance of distributed systems
• Speed up servlets and JSPs
• Structure JDBC usage efficiently
• Use effective design patterns to optimize EJB performance

Covers JDK 1.4

About the author

Jack Shirazi is an independent consultant. He was an early adopter of Java, and for the last few years has consulted mainly for the financial sector, focusing on Java performance. Before using Java, Jack spent many years tuning Smalltalk applications. Jack's early career involved research in theoretical physics and bioinformatics. Jack has publications in the field of protein structure and is proud to have contributed to some of the core Perl5 modules.