Java Reflection Performance

Question

Does creating an object using reflection rather than calling the class constructor result in any significant performance differences?

Answer 1

You may find that A a = new A() is being optimised out by the JVM. If you put the objects into an array, they don't perform so well. ;) The following prints...

new A(), 141 ns
A.class.newInstance(), 266 ns
new A(), 103 ns
A.class.newInstance(), 261 ns

public class Run {
    private static final int RUNS = 3000000;

    public static class A {
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        doRegular();
        doReflection();
        doRegular();
        doReflection();
    }

    public static void doRegular() throws Exception {
        A[] as = new A[RUNS];
        long start = System.nanoTime();
        for (int i = 0; i < RUNS; i++) {
            as[i] = new A();
        }
        System.out.printf("new A(), %,d ns%n", (System.nanoTime() - start)/RUNS);
    }

    public static void doReflection() throws Exception {
        A[] as = new A[RUNS];
        long start = System.nanoTime();
        for (int i = 0; i < RUNS; i++) {
            as[i] = A.class.newInstance();
        }
        System.out.printf("A.class.newInstance(), %,d ns%n", (System.nanoTime() - start)/RUNS);
    }
}

This suggest the difference is about 150 ns on my machine.