CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javamemory-managementmethods
Syndog
Syndog

Reputation: 1677

Does adding methods to a Java class boost the memory usage of its instances?

Adding member variables to a class certainly boosts the memory footprint of its instances on the heap, but what about a class's methods?

For example, if I have a class composed of a single StringBuilder, but keep adding dozens of methods to manipulate that StringBuilder, will each instance of that class take up proportionally more memory as I add more methods?

Thanks!

Upvotes: 8

Views: 1384

Answers (3)

Luis Casillas
Luis Casillas

Reputation: 30237

This is VM specific, but for the Oracle Hotspot VM that everybody uses, no, the instance size is not affected.

Upvotes: 3

Sergey Kalinichenko
Sergey Kalinichenko

Reputation: 726889

No, adding methods does not increase the footprint of the object, only the footprint of the compiled code. In other words, the per-instance memory cost is zero.

Upvotes: 14

Oscar Gomez
Oscar Gomez

Reputation: 18488

The short answer is no, it will not add more memory to each object living in the heap. The only thing that will happen is when the class is first loaded, it will also load this methods.

Upvotes: 5

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