最近在重构one的项目，其中用HashMap来缓存ActivityGroup加载过的View，Eclipse给出了一个警告，之前考虑项目进度没怎么在意，这次仔细看了下提示，如下：
Use new SparseArray<View> (...) instead for better performance意思就是说用SparseArray来替代，以获取更好的性能。对SparseArray根本不熟悉，甚至都没听过，第一感觉应该是Android提供的类，于是F3进入SparseArray的源码，果不其然，确实是Android提供的一个工具类,部分源码如下：
* Copyright (C) 2006 The Android Open Source Project
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/
package android.util;
import com.android.internal.util.ArrayUtils;
/**
* SparseArrays map integers to Objects. Unlike a normal array of Objects,
* there can be gaps in the indices. It is intended to be more efficient
* than using a HashMap to map Integers to Objects.
*/
public class SparseArray<E> implements Cloneable {
private static final Object DELETED = new Object();
private boolean mGarbage = false;
private int[] mKeys;
private Object[] mValues;
private int mSize;
/**
* Creates a new SparseArray containing no mappings.
*/
public SparseArray() {
this(10);
}
/**
* Creates a new SparseArray containing no mappings that will not
* require any additional memory allocation to store the specified
* number of mappings.
*/
public SparseArray(int initialCapacity) {
initialCapacity = ArrayUtils.idealIntArraySize(initialCapacity);
mKeys = new int[initialCapacity];
mValues = new Object[initialCapacity];
mSize = 0;
}
@Override
@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public SparseArray<E> clone() {
SparseArray<E> clone = null;
try {
clone = (SparseArray<E>) super.clone();
clone.mKeys = mKeys.clone();
clone.mValues = mValues.clone();
} catch (CloneNotSupportedException cnse) {
/* ignore */
}
return clone;
}
/**
* Gets the Object mapped from the specified key, or <code>null</code>
* if no such mapping has been made.
*/
public E get(int key) {
return get(key, null);
}
/**
* Gets the Object mapped from the specified key, or the specified Object
* if no such mapping has been made.
*/
@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public E get(int key, E valueIfKeyNotFound) {
int i = binarySearch(mKeys, 0, mSize, key);
if (i < 0 || mValues[i] == DELETED) {
return valueIfKeyNotFound;
} else {
return (E) mValues[i];
}
}
/**
* Removes the mapping from the specified key, if there was any.
*/
public void delete(int key) {
int i = binarySearch(mKeys, 0, mSize, key);
if (i >= 0) {
if (mValues[i] != DELETED) {
mValues[i] = DELETED;
mGarbage = true;
}
}
}
/**
* Alias for {@link #delete(int)}.
*/
public void remove(int key) {
delete(key);
}
/**
* Removes the mapping at the specified index.
*/
public void removeAt(int index) {
if (mValues[index] != DELETED) {
mValues[index] = DELETED;
mGarbage = true;
}
}
...mSize++;单纯从字面上来理解，SparseArray指的是稀疏数组(Sparse array)，所谓稀疏数组就是数组中大部分的内容值都未被使用（或都为零），在数组中仅有少部分的空间使用。因此造成内存空间的浪费，为了节省内存空间，并且不影响数组中原有的内容值，我们可以采用一种压缩的方式来表示稀疏数组的内容。
继续阅读SparseArray的源码，从构造方法我们可以看出，它和一般的List一样，可以预先设置容器大小，默认的大小是10：
public SparseArray() {
this(10);
}
public SparseArray(int initialCapacity) {
initialCapacity = ArrayUtils.idealIntArraySize(initialCapacity);
mKeys = new int[initialCapacity];
mValues = new Object[initialCapacity];
mSize = 0;
}再来看看它对数据的“增删改查”。
public void put(int key, E value) {}
public void append(int key, E value){}修改数据起初以为只有setValueAt(int index, E value)可以修改数据，但后来发现put(int key, E value)也可以修改数据，我们查看put(int key, E value)的源码可知，在put数据之前，会先查找要put的数据是否已经存在，如果存在就是修改，不存在就添加。
public void put(int key, E value) {
int i = binarySearch(mKeys, 0, mSize, key);
if (i >= 0) {
mValues[i] = value;
} else {
i = ~i;
if (i < mSize && mValues[i] == DELETED) {
mKeys[i] = key;
mValues[i] = value;
return;
}
if (mGarbage && mSize >= mKeys.length) {
gc();
// Search again because indices may have changed.
i = ~binarySearch(mKeys, 0, mSize, key);
}
if (mSize >= mKeys.length) {
int n = ArrayUtils.idealIntArraySize(mSize + 1);
int[] nkeys = new int[n];
Object[] nvalues = new Object[n];
// Log.e("SparseArray", "grow " + mKeys.length + " to " + n);
System.arraycopy(mKeys, 0, nkeys, 0, mKeys.length);
System.arraycopy(mValues, 0, nvalues, 0, mValues.length);
mKeys = nkeys;
mValues = nvalues;
}
if (mSize - i != 0) {
// Log.e("SparseArray", "move " + (mSize - i));
System.arraycopy(mKeys, i, mKeys, i + 1, mSize - i);
System.arraycopy(mValues, i, mValues, i + 1, mSize - i);
}
mKeys[i] = key;
mValues[i] = value;
}
}所以，修改数据实际也有两种方法：
public void put(int key, E value)
public void setValueAt(int index, E value)最后再来看看如何查找数据。有两个方法可以查询取值：
public E get(int key)
public E get(int key, E valueIfKeyNotFound)其中get(int key)也只是调用了 get(int key,E valueIfKeyNotFound),最后一个从传参的变量名就能看出，传入的是找不到的时候返回的值.get(int key)当找不到的时候，默认返回null。
查看第几个位置的键：
public int keyAt(int index)有一点需要注意的是，查看键所在位置，由于是采用二分法查找键的位置，所以找不到时返回小于0的数值，而不是返回-1。返回的负值是表示它在找不到时所在的位置。
查看第几个位置的值：
public E valueAt(int index)查看值所在位置，没有的话返回-1：
public int indexOfValue(E value)最后，发现其核心就是折半查找函数（binarySearch），算法设计的很不错。
private static int binarySearch(int[] a, int start, int len, int key) {
int high = start + len, low = start - 1, guess;
while (high - low > 1) {
guess = (high + low) / 2;
if (a[guess] < key)
low = guess;
else
high = guess;
}
if (high == start + len)
return ~(start + len);
else if (a[high] == key)
return high;
else
return ~high;
}
相应的也有SparseBooleanArray，用来取代HashMap<Integer, Boolean>，SparseIntArray用来取代HashMap<Integer, Integer>，大家有兴趣的可以研究。总结
SparseArray是android里为<Interger,Object>这样的Hashmap而专门写的类,目的是提高效率，其核心是折半查找函数（binarySearch）。在Android中，当我们需要定义
HashMap<Integer, E> hashMap = new HashMap<Integer, E>();
时，我们可以使用如下的方式来取得更好的性能.
SparseArray<E> sparseArray = new SparseArray<E>();最后，看看重构后的ActivityGroupManager：
public class ActivityGroupManager {
static final String TAG = ActivityGroupManager.class.getName();
private SparseArray<View> array;
private ViewGroup container;
public ActivityGroupManager() {
array = new SparseArray<View>();
}
public void setContainer(ViewGroup container) {
this.container = container;
}
public void showContainer(int num, View view) {
if (array.get(num) == null) {
array.put(num, view);
container.addView(view);
}
for (int i = 0; i < array.size(); i++) {
View v = array.valueAt(i);
v.setVisibility(View.GONE);
}
view.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
}
}