Class OrderedBytes


  • public class OrderedBytes
    extends java.lang.Object
    Utility class that handles ordered byte arrays. That is, unlike Bytes, these methods produce byte arrays which maintain the sort order of the original values.

    Encoding Format summary

    Each value is encoded as one or more bytes. The first byte of the encoding, its meaning, and a terse description of the bytes that follow is given by the following table:

    Content TypeEncoding
    NULL0x05
    negative infinity0x07
    negative large0x08, ~E, ~M
    negative medium0x13-E, ~M
    negative small0x14, -E, ~M
    zero0x15
    positive small0x16, ~-E, M
    positive medium0x17+E, M
    positive large0x22, E, M
    positive infinity0x23
    NaN0x25
    fixed-length 32-bit integer0x27, I
    fixed-length 64-bit integer0x28, I
    fixed-length 8-bit integer0x29
    fixed-length 16-bit integer0x2a
    fixed-length 32-bit float0x30, F
    fixed-length 64-bit float0x31, F
    TEXT0x33, T
    variable length BLOB0x35, B
    byte-for-byte BLOB0x36, X

    Null Encoding

    Each value that is a NULL encodes as a single byte of 0x05. Since every other value encoding begins with a byte greater than 0x05, this forces NULL values to sort first.

    Text Encoding

    Each text value begins with a single byte of 0x33 and ends with a single byte of 0x00. There are zero or more intervening bytes that encode the text value. The intervening bytes are chosen so that the encoding will sort in the desired collating order. The intervening bytes may not contain a 0x00 character; the only 0x00 byte allowed in a text encoding is the final byte.

    The text encoding ends in 0x00 in order to ensure that when there are two strings where one is a prefix of the other that the shorter string will sort first.

    Binary Encoding

    There are two encoding strategies for binary fields, referred to as "BlobVar" and "BlobCopy". BlobVar is less efficient in both space and encoding time. It has no limitations on the range of encoded values. BlobCopy is a byte-for-byte copy of the input data followed by a termination byte. It is extremely fast to encode and decode. It carries the restriction of not allowing a 0x00 value in the input byte[] as this value is used as the termination byte.

    BlobVar

    "BlobVar" encodes the input byte[] in a manner similar to a variable length integer encoding. As with the other OrderedBytes encodings, the first encoded byte is used to indicate what kind of value follows. This header byte is 0x37 for BlobVar encoded values. As with the traditional varint encoding, the most significant bit of each subsequent encoded byte is used as a continuation marker. The 7 remaining bits contain the 7 most significant bits of the first unencoded byte. The next encoded byte starts with a continuation marker in the MSB. The least significant bit from the first unencoded byte follows, and the remaining 6 bits contain the 6 MSBs of the second unencoded byte. The encoding continues, encoding 7 bytes on to 8 encoded bytes. The MSB of the final encoded byte contains a termination marker rather than a continuation marker, and any remaining bits from the final input byte. Any trailing bits in the final encoded byte are zeros.

    BlobCopy

    "BlobCopy" is a simple byte-for-byte copy of the input data. It uses 0x38 as the header byte, and is terminated by 0x00 in the DESCENDING case. This alternative encoding is faster and more space-efficient, but it cannot accept values containing a 0x00 byte in DESCENDING order.

    Variable-length Numeric Encoding

    Numeric values must be coded so as to sort in numeric order. We assume that numeric values can be both integer and floating point values. Clients must be careful to use inspection methods for encoded values (such as isNumericInfinite(PositionedByteRange) and isNumericNaN(PositionedByteRange) to protect against decoding values into object which do not support these numeric concepts (such as Long and BigDecimal).

    Simplest cases first: If the numeric value is a NaN, then the encoding is a single byte of 0x25. This causes NaN values to sort after every other numeric value.

    If the numeric value is a negative infinity then the encoding is a single byte of 0x07. Since every other numeric value except NaN has a larger initial byte, this encoding ensures that negative infinity will sort prior to every other numeric value other than NaN.

    If the numeric value is a positive infinity then the encoding is a single byte of 0x23. Every other numeric value encoding begins with a smaller byte, ensuring that positive infinity always sorts last among numeric values. 0x23 is also smaller than 0x33, the initial byte of a text value, ensuring that every numeric value sorts before every text value.

    If the numeric value is exactly zero then it is encoded as a single byte of 0x15. Finite negative values will have initial bytes of 0x08 through 0x14 and finite positive values will have initial bytes of 0x16 through 0x22.

    For all numeric values, we compute a mantissa M and an exponent E. The mantissa is a base-100 representation of the value. The exponent E determines where to put the decimal point.

    Each centimal digit of the mantissa is stored in a byte. If the value of the centimal digit is X (hence X≥0 and X≤99) then the byte value will be 2*X+1 for every byte of the mantissa, except for the last byte which will be 2*X+0. The mantissa must be the minimum number of bytes necessary to represent the value; trailing X==0 digits are omitted. This means that the mantissa will never contain a byte with the value 0x00.

    If we assume all digits of the mantissa occur to the right of the decimal point, then the exponent E is the power of one hundred by which one must multiply the mantissa to recover the original value.

    Values are classified as large, medium, or small according to the value of E. If E is 11 or more, the value is large. For E between 0 and 10, the value is medium. For E less than zero, the value is small.

    Large positive values are encoded as a single byte 0x22 followed by E as a varint and then M. Medium positive values are a single byte of 0x17+E followed by M. Small positive values are encoded as a single byte 0x16 followed by the ones-complement of the varint for -E followed by M.

    Small negative values are encoded as a single byte 0x14 followed by -E as a varint and then the ones-complement of M. Medium negative values are encoded as a byte 0x13-E followed by the ones-complement of M. Large negative values consist of the single byte 0x08 followed by the ones-complement of the varint encoding of E followed by the ones-complement of M.

    Fixed-length Integer Encoding

    All 4-byte integers are serialized to a 5-byte, fixed-width, sortable byte format. All 8-byte integers are serialized to the equivelant 9-byte format. Serialization is performed by writing a header byte, inverting the integer sign bit and writing the resulting bytes to the byte array in big endian order.

    Fixed-length Floating Point Encoding

    32-bit and 64-bit floating point numbers are encoded to a 5-byte and 9-byte encoding format, respectively. The format is identical, save for the precision respected in each step of the operation.

    This format ensures the following total ordering of floating point values: Float.NEGATIVE_INFINITY < -Float.MAX_VALUE < ... < -Float.MIN_VALUE < -0.0 < +0.0; < Float.MIN_VALUE < ... < Float.MAX_VALUE < Float.POSITIVE_INFINITY < Float.NaN

    Floating point numbers are encoded as specified in IEEE 754. A 32-bit single precision float consists of a sign bit, 8-bit unsigned exponent encoded in offset-127 notation, and a 23-bit significand. The format is described further in the Single Precision Floating Point Wikipedia page

    The value of a normal float is -1 sign bit × 2exponent - 127 × 1.significand

    The IEE754 floating point format already preserves sort ordering for positive floating point numbers when the raw bytes are compared in most significant byte order. This is discussed further at http://www.cygnus-software.com/papers/comparingfloats/comparingfloats.htm

    Thus, we need only ensure that negative numbers sort in the the exact opposite order as positive numbers (so that say, negative infinity is less than negative 1), and that all negative numbers compare less than any positive number. To accomplish this, we invert the sign bit of all floating point numbers, and we also invert the exponent and significand bits if the floating point number was negative.

    More specifically, we first store the floating point bits into a 32-bit int j using Float.floatToIntBits(float). This method collapses all NaNs into a single, canonical NaN value but otherwise leaves the bits unchanged. We then compute

     j ˆ= (j >> (Integer.SIZE - 1)) | Integer.MIN_SIZE
     

    which inverts the sign bit and XOR's all other bits with the sign bit itself. Comparing the raw bytes of j in most significant byte order is equivalent to performing a single precision floating point comparison on the underlying bits (ignoring NaN comparisons, as NaNs don't compare equal to anything when performing floating point comparisons).

    The resulting integer is then converted into a byte array by serializing the integer one byte at a time in most significant byte order. The serialized integer is prefixed by a single header byte. All serialized values are 5 bytes in length.

    OrderedBytes encodings are heavily influenced by the SQLite4 Key Encoding. Slight deviations are make in the interest of order correctness and user extensibility. Fixed-width Long and Double encodings are based on implementations from the now defunct Orderly library.

    • Field Detail

      • UTF8

        public static final java.nio.charset.Charset UTF8
      • MAX_PRECISION

        public static final int MAX_PRECISION
        Max precision guaranteed to fit into a long.
        See Also:
        Constant Field Values
      • DEFAULT_MATH_CONTEXT

        public static final java.math.MathContext DEFAULT_MATH_CONTEXT
        The context used to normalize BigDecimal values.
    • Constructor Detail

      • OrderedBytes

        public OrderedBytes()
    • Method Detail

      • encodeNumeric

        public static int encodeNumeric​(PositionedByteRange dst,
                                        long val,
                                        Order ord)
        Encode a numerical value using the variable-length encoding.
        Parameters:
        dst - The destination to which encoded digits are written.
        val - The value to encode.
        ord - The Order to respect while encoding val.
        Returns:
        the number of bytes written.
      • encodeNumeric

        public static int encodeNumeric​(PositionedByteRange dst,
                                        double val,
                                        Order ord)
        Encode a numerical value using the variable-length encoding.
        Parameters:
        dst - The destination to which encoded digits are written.
        val - The value to encode.
        ord - The Order to respect while encoding val.
        Returns:
        the number of bytes written.
      • encodeNumeric

        public static int encodeNumeric​(PositionedByteRange dst,
                                        java.math.BigDecimal val,
                                        Order ord)
        Encode a numerical value using the variable-length encoding.
        Parameters:
        dst - The destination to which encoded digits are written.
        val - The value to encode.
        ord - The Order to respect while encoding val.
        Returns:
        the number of bytes written.
      • decodeNumericAsDouble

        public static double decodeNumericAsDouble​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Decode a primitive double value from the Numeric encoding. Numeric encoding is based on BigDecimal; in the event the encoded value is larger than can be represented in a double, this method performs an implicit narrowing conversion as described in BigDecimal.doubleValue().
        Throws:
        java.lang.NullPointerException - when the encoded value is NULL.
        java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - when the encoded value is not a Numeric.
        See Also:
        encodeNumeric(PositionedByteRange, double, Order), BigDecimal.doubleValue()
      • decodeNumericAsLong

        public static long decodeNumericAsLong​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Decode a primitive long value from the Numeric encoding. Numeric encoding is based on BigDecimal; in the event the encoded value is larger than can be represented in a long, this method performs an implicit narrowing conversion as described in BigDecimal.doubleValue().
        Throws:
        java.lang.NullPointerException - when the encoded value is NULL.
        java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - when the encoded value is not a Numeric.
        See Also:
        encodeNumeric(PositionedByteRange, long, Order), BigDecimal.longValue()
      • encodeString

        public static int encodeString​(PositionedByteRange dst,
                                       java.lang.String val,
                                       Order ord)
        Encode a String value. String encoding is 0x00-terminated and so it does not support codepoints in the value.
        Parameters:
        dst - The destination to which the encoded value is written.
        val - The value to encode.
        ord - The Order to respect while encoding val.
        Returns:
        the number of bytes written.
        Throws:
        java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - when val contains a .
      • decodeString

        public static java.lang.String decodeString​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Decode a String value.
      • blobVarEncodedLength

        public static int blobVarEncodedLength​(int len)
        Calculate the expected BlobVar encoded length based on unencoded length.
      • encodeBlobVar

        public static int encodeBlobVar​(PositionedByteRange dst,
                                        byte[] val,
                                        int voff,
                                        int vlen,
                                        Order ord)
        Encode a Blob value using a modified varint encoding scheme.

        This format encodes a byte[] value such that no limitations on the input value are imposed. The first byte encodes the encoding scheme that follows, BLOB_VAR. Each encoded byte thereafter consists of a header bit followed by 7 bits of payload. A header bit of '1' indicates continuation of the encoding. A header bit of '0' indicates this byte contains the last of the payload. An empty input value is encoded as the header byte immediately followed by a termination byte 0x00. This is not ambiguous with the encoded value of [], which results in [0x80, 0x00].

        Returns:
        the number of bytes written.
      • decodeBlobVar

        public static byte[] decodeBlobVar​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Decode a blob value that was encoded using BlobVar encoding.
      • encodeBlobCopy

        public static int encodeBlobCopy​(PositionedByteRange dst,
                                         byte[] val,
                                         int voff,
                                         int vlen,
                                         Order ord)
        Encode a Blob value as a byte-for-byte copy. BlobCopy encoding in DESCENDING order is NULL terminated so as to preserve proper sorting of [] and so it does not support 0x00 in the value.
        Returns:
        the number of bytes written.
        Throws:
        java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - when ord is DESCENDING and val contains a 0x00 byte.
      • encodeBlobCopy

        public static int encodeBlobCopy​(PositionedByteRange dst,
                                         byte[] val,
                                         Order ord)
        Encode a Blob value as a byte-for-byte copy. BlobCopy encoding in DESCENDING order is NULL terminated so as to preserve proper sorting of [] and so it does not support 0x00 in the value.
        Returns:
        the number of bytes written.
        Throws:
        java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - when ord is DESCENDING and val contains a 0x00 byte.
        See Also:
        encodeBlobCopy(PositionedByteRange, byte[], int, int, Order)
      • encodeNull

        public static int encodeNull​(PositionedByteRange dst,
                                     Order ord)
        Encode a null value.
        Parameters:
        dst - The destination to which encoded digits are written.
        ord - The Order to respect while encoding val.
        Returns:
        the number of bytes written.
      • encodeInt64

        public static int encodeInt64​(PositionedByteRange dst,
                                      long val,
                                      Order ord)
        Encode an int64 value using the fixed-length encoding.

        This format ensures that all longs sort in their natural order, as they would sort when using signed long comparison.

        All Longs are serialized to an 8-byte, fixed-width sortable byte format. Serialization is performed by inverting the integer sign bit and writing the resulting bytes to the byte array in big endian order. The encoded value is prefixed by the FIXED_INT64 header byte. This encoding is designed to handle java language primitives and so Null values are NOT supported by this implementation.

        For example:

         Input:   0x0000000000000005 (5)
         Result:  0x288000000000000005
        
         Input:   0xfffffffffffffffb (-4)
         Result:  0x280000000000000004
        
         Input:   0x7fffffffffffffff (Long.MAX_VALUE)
         Result:  0x28ffffffffffffffff
        
         Input:   0x8000000000000000 (Long.MIN_VALUE)
         Result:  0x287fffffffffffffff
         

        This encoding format, and much of this documentation string, is based on Orderly's FixedIntWritableRowKey.

        Returns:
        the number of bytes written.
        See Also:
        decodeInt64(PositionedByteRange)
      • encodeFloat64

        public static int encodeFloat64​(PositionedByteRange dst,
                                        double val,
                                        Order ord)
        Encode a 64-bit floating point value using the fixed-length encoding.

        This format ensures the following total ordering of floating point values: Double.NEGATIVE_INFINITY < -Double.MAX_VALUE < ... < -Double.MIN_VALUE < -0.0 < +0.0; < Double.MIN_VALUE < ... < Double.MAX_VALUE < Double.POSITIVE_INFINITY < Double.NaN

        Floating point numbers are encoded as specified in IEEE 754. A 64-bit double precision float consists of a sign bit, 11-bit unsigned exponent encoded in offset-1023 notation, and a 52-bit significand. The format is described further in the Double Precision Floating Point Wikipedia page

        The value of a normal float is -1 sign bit × 2exponent - 1023 × 1.significand

        The IEE754 floating point format already preserves sort ordering for positive floating point numbers when the raw bytes are compared in most significant byte order. This is discussed further at http://www.cygnus-software.com/papers/comparingfloats/comparingfloats. htm

        Thus, we need only ensure that negative numbers sort in the the exact opposite order as positive numbers (so that say, negative infinity is less than negative 1), and that all negative numbers compare less than any positive number. To accomplish this, we invert the sign bit of all floating point numbers, and we also invert the exponent and significand bits if the floating point number was negative.

        More specifically, we first store the floating point bits into a 64-bit long l using Double.doubleToLongBits(double). This method collapses all NaNs into a single, canonical NaN value but otherwise leaves the bits unchanged. We then compute

         l ˆ= (l >> (Long.SIZE - 1)) | Long.MIN_SIZE
         

        which inverts the sign bit and XOR's all other bits with the sign bit itself. Comparing the raw bytes of l in most significant byte order is equivalent to performing a double precision floating point comparison on the underlying bits (ignoring NaN comparisons, as NaNs don't compare equal to anything when performing floating point comparisons).

        The resulting long integer is then converted into a byte array by serializing the long one byte at a time in most significant byte order. The serialized integer is prefixed by a single header byte. All serialized values are 9 bytes in length.

        This encoding format, and much of this highly detailed documentation string, is based on Orderly's DoubleWritableRowKey.

        Returns:
        the number of bytes written.
        See Also:
        decodeFloat64(PositionedByteRange)
      • isEncodedValue

        public static boolean isEncodedValue​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Returns true when src appears to be positioned an encoded value, false otherwise.
      • isNull

        public static boolean isNull​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Return true when the next encoded value in src is null, false otherwise.
      • isNumeric

        public static boolean isNumeric​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Return true when the next encoded value in src uses Numeric encoding, false otherwise. NaN, +/-Inf are valid Numeric values.
      • isNumericInfinite

        public static boolean isNumericInfinite​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Return true when the next encoded value in src uses Numeric encoding and is Infinite, false otherwise.
      • isNumericNaN

        public static boolean isNumericNaN​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Return true when the next encoded value in src uses Numeric encoding and is NaN, false otherwise.
      • isNumericZero

        public static boolean isNumericZero​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Return true when the next encoded value in src uses Numeric encoding and is 0, false otherwise.
      • isFixedInt32

        public static boolean isFixedInt32​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Return true when the next encoded value in src uses fixed-width Int32 encoding, false otherwise.
      • isFixedInt64

        public static boolean isFixedInt64​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Return true when the next encoded value in src uses fixed-width Int64 encoding, false otherwise.
      • isFixedFloat32

        public static boolean isFixedFloat32​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Return true when the next encoded value in src uses fixed-width Float32 encoding, false otherwise.
      • isFixedFloat64

        public static boolean isFixedFloat64​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Return true when the next encoded value in src uses fixed-width Float64 encoding, false otherwise.
      • isText

        public static boolean isText​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Return true when the next encoded value in src uses Text encoding, false otherwise.
      • isBlobVar

        public static boolean isBlobVar​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Return true when the next encoded value in src uses BlobVar encoding, false otherwise.
      • isBlobCopy

        public static boolean isBlobCopy​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Return true when the next encoded value in src uses BlobCopy encoding, false otherwise.
      • skip

        public static int skip​(PositionedByteRange src)
        Skip buff's position forward over one encoded value.
        Returns:
        number of bytes skipped.
      • length

        public static int length​(PositionedByteRange buff)
        Return the number of encoded entries remaining in buff. The state of buff is not modified through use of this method.