Question

Suppose I do a bubble sort example like the following in Java:

package testing;

public class bubbleSort {
public static void main(String a[]) {
    int i;
    int array[] = { 12, 9, 4, 99, 120, 1, 3, 10 };
    System.out.println("Values Before the sort:\n");
    for (i = 0; i < array.length; i++)
        System.out.print(array[i] + "  ");
    System.out.println();
    bubble_srt(array, array.length);
    System.out.print("Values after the sort:\n");
    for (i = 0; i < array.length; i++)
        System.out.print(array[i] + "  ");
    System.out.println();
    System.out.println("PAUSE");
}

public static void bubble_srt(int a[], int n) {
    int i, j, t = 0;
    for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
        for (j = 1; j < (n - i); j++) {
            if (a[j - 1] > a[j]) {
                t = a[j - 1];
                a[j - 1] = a[j];
                a[j] = t;
            }
        }
    }
}
}

Is there a way to find out

(a) How much RAM the data structure for the array of elements consumes?

(b) If not – is there a way to compare how much RAM that process consumes compared to a vanilla HelloWorld?

package testing;

public class Testing {
public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println("Hello World!");
}

}

Answer 1

How much RAM the data structure for the array of elements consumes?

Not easily. It will be about 40-48 bytes long, which isn’t worth worrying about.

If not – is there a way to compare how much RAM that process consumes compared to a vanilla HelloWorld?

At a guess, I would say your first example uses up to 100 KB more than the second. This is because there is allot going on behind the sense to load extra classes and turn int values into String which is most of the memory consumption. Your array is trivial by comparison.

In any case, 100 KB isn’t worth worrying about either. In a desktop 100 KB costs less than 1 cents and is reusable.