What is the size of a boolean variable in Java?

Solution 1:

It depends on the virtual machine, but it's easy to adapt the code from a similar question asking about bytes in Java:

class LotsOfBooleans
{
    boolean a0, a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6, a7, a8, a9, aa, ab, ac, ad, ae, af;
    boolean b0, b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7, b8, b9, ba, bb, bc, bd, be, bf;
    boolean c0, c1, c2, c3, c4, c5, c6, c7, c8, c9, ca, cb, cc, cd, ce, cf;
    boolean d0, d1, d2, d3, d4, d5, d6, d7, d8, d9, da, db, dc, dd, de, df;
    boolean e0, e1, e2, e3, e4, e5, e6, e7, e8, e9, ea, eb, ec, ed, ee, ef;
}

class LotsOfInts
{
    int a0, a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6, a7, a8, a9, aa, ab, ac, ad, ae, af;
    int b0, b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7, b8, b9, ba, bb, bc, bd, be, bf;
    int c0, c1, c2, c3, c4, c5, c6, c7, c8, c9, ca, cb, cc, cd, ce, cf;
    int d0, d1, d2, d3, d4, d5, d6, d7, d8, d9, da, db, dc, dd, de, df;
    int e0, e1, e2, e3, e4, e5, e6, e7, e8, e9, ea, eb, ec, ed, ee, ef;
}


public class Test
{
    private static final int SIZE = 1000000;

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
    {        
        LotsOfBooleans[] first = new LotsOfBooleans[SIZE];
        LotsOfInts[] second = new LotsOfInts[SIZE];

        System.gc();
        long startMem = getMemory();

        for (int i=0; i < SIZE; i++)
        {
            first[i] = new LotsOfBooleans();
        }

        System.gc();
        long endMem = getMemory();

        System.out.println ("Size for LotsOfBooleans: " + (endMem-startMem));
        System.out.println ("Average size: " + ((endMem-startMem) / ((double)SIZE)));

        System.gc();
        startMem = getMemory();
        for (int i=0; i < SIZE; i++)
        {
            second[i] = new LotsOfInts();
        }
        System.gc();
        endMem = getMemory();

        System.out.println ("Size for LotsOfInts: " + (endMem-startMem));
        System.out.println ("Average size: " + ((endMem-startMem) / ((double)SIZE)));

        // Make sure nothing gets collected
        long total = 0;
        for (int i=0; i < SIZE; i++)
        {
            total += (first[i].a0 ? 1 : 0) + second[i].a0;
        }
        System.out.println(total);
    }

    private static long getMemory()
    {
        Runtime runtime = Runtime.getRuntime();
        return runtime.totalMemory() - runtime.freeMemory();
    }
}

To reiterate, this is VM-dependent, but on my Windows laptop running Sun's JDK build 1.6.0_11 I got the following results:

Size for LotsOfBooleans: 87978576
Average size: 87.978576
Size for LotsOfInts: 328000000
Average size: 328.0

That suggests that booleans can basically be packed into a byte each by Sun's JVM.

Solution 2:

It's virtual machine dependent.

Solution 3:

The actual information represented by a boolean value in Java is one bit: 1 for true, 0 for false. However, the actual size of a boolean variable in memory is not precisely defined by the Java specification. See Primitive Data Types in Java.

The boolean data type has only two possible values: true and false. Use this data type for simple flags that track true/false conditions. This data type represents one bit of information, but its "size" isn't something that's precisely defined.

Solution 4:

On a side note...

If you are thinking about using an array of Boolean objects, don't. Use a BitSet instead - it has some performance optimisations (and some nice extra methods, allowing you to get the next set/unset bit).

Solution 5:

I read that Java reserves one byte for a boolean datatype, but it uses only one bit. However, the documentation says that "its "size" isn't something that's precisely defined". See here.