RT Journal Article
T1 Getting the most from map data structures in Android
A1 Saborido Infantes, Rubén
A1 Morales, Rodrigo
A1 Khomh, Foutse
A1 Guéhéneuc, Yann-Gaël
A1 Antoniol, Giuliano
K1 Estructuras de datos (Informática)
AB A map is a data structure that is commonly used to store data as key–value pairs and retrieve data as keys, values, or key–value pairs. Although Java offers different map implementation classes, Android SDK offers other implementations supposed to be more efficient than HashMap: ArrayMap and SparseArray variants (SparseArray, LongSparseArray, SparseIntArray, SparseLongArray, and SparseBooleanArray). Yet, the performance of these implementations in terms of CPU time, memory usage, and energy consumption is lacking in the official Android documentation; although saving CPU, memory, and energy is a major concern of users wanting to increase battery life. Consequently, we study the use of map implementations by Android developers in two ways. First, we perform an observational study of 5713 Android apps in GitHub. Second, we conduct a survey to assess developers’ perspective on Java and Android map implementations. Then, we perform an experimental study comparing HashMap, ArrayMap, and SparseArray variants map implementations in terms of CPU time, memory usage, and energy consumption. We conclude with guidelines for choosing among the map implementations: HashMap is preferable over ArrayMap to improve energy efficiency of apps, and SparseArray variants should be used instead of HashMap and ArrayMap when keys are primitive types.
PB Springer
YR 2018
FD 2018
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/34061
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/34061
LA eng
NO Saborido, R., Morales, R., Khomh, F. et al. Getting the most from map data structures in Android. Empir Software Eng 23, 2829–2864 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-018-9607-8
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 20 ene 2026