Why is Collections.sort() much slower than Arrays.sort()?

Question

I tried to do a test, regarding Collection.sort() and Arrays.sort(). In the test, I created an array of ints of length 1e5 100 times, which contained random numbers from 1 to 1e5. I also created a list of type Integer, which contained the same values at the same positions as that of the array. Then I sorted the array using Arrays.sort() and the list using Collections.sort().

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UPDATE: As @Holger pointed out, my code had a bug. The corrected code is now:

import java.util.* ;


class TestClass {
    public static void main(String args[] ) throws Exception {
        double ratSum = 0 ;
        for(int j=0;j<100;j++)
        {
        int[] A = new int[(int)1e5] ;
        List<Integer> L = new ArrayList<Integer>() ;
        for(int i=0;i<A.length;i++)
        {
            int no = (int)(Math.random()*(int)1e5) ;
            A[i] = no ;
            L.add(A[i]) ;
        }

        long startTime = System.nanoTime() ;
        Arrays.sort(A) ;
        long endTime = System.nanoTime() ;
        Collections.sort(L) ;
        long endTime2 = System.nanoTime() ;
        long t1 = (endTime-startTime), t2 = (endTime2-endTime) ;
        ratSum+=(double)t2/t1 ;
        System.out.println("Arrays.sort took :"+t1+" Collections.sort took :"+t2+" ratio :"+((double)t2/t1)) ;
    }
    System.out.println("Average ratio :"+(ratSum/100)) ;
    }
}

And the output is:

Arrays.sort took :24106021 Collections.sort took :92353602 ratio :3.8311425182944956
Arrays.sort took :8672831 Collections.sort took :50936497 ratio :5.873110752417521
Arrays.sort took :8561227 Collections.sort took :25611480 ratio :2.991566512603859
Arrays.sort took :7123928 Collections.sort took :17368785 ratio :2.4380910362934607
Arrays.sort took :6280488 Collections.sort took :16929218 ratio :2.6955258890710403
Arrays.sort took :6248227 Collections.sort took :16844915 ratio :2.695951187432851
Arrays.sort took :6220942 Collections.sort took :16979669 ratio :2.7294369566538315
Arrays.sort took :6213841 Collections.sort took :17439817 ratio :2.8066081832476883
Arrays.sort took :6286385 Collections.sort took :19963612 ratio :3.175690321225951
Arrays.sort took :6209668 Collections.sort took :17008307 ratio :2.7390042430609816
Arrays.sort took :6286623 Collections.sort took :17007163 ratio :2.705293923303497
Arrays.sort took :6256505 Collections.sort took :16911950 ratio :2.703098614961548
Arrays.sort took :6225031 Collections.sort took :16914494 ratio :2.7171742598550916
Arrays.sort took :6233918 Collections.sort took :17005995 ratio :2.72797861633727
Arrays.sort took :6210554 Collections.sort took :17606028 ratio :2.834856278522013
Arrays.sort took :6239384 Collections.sort took :20342378 ratio :3.260318326296314
Arrays.sort took :6207695 Collections.sort took :16519089 ratio :2.6610664666997974
Arrays.sort took :6227147 Collections.sort took :16605884 ratio :2.666692146499834
Arrays.sort took :6225187 Collections.sort took :16687597 ratio :2.680657946500242
Arrays.sort took :6152338 Collections.sort took :16475373 ratio :2.6779043999208105
Arrays.sort took :6184746 Collections.sort took :16511024 ratio :2.6696365541931715
Arrays.sort took :6130221 Collections.sort took :16578032 ratio :2.7043122915144493
Arrays.sort took :6271927 Collections.sort took :16507152 ratio :2.631910734930429
Arrays.sort took :6232482 Collections.sort took :16562166 ratio :2.657394919070765
Arrays.sort took :6218992 Collections.sort took :16552468 ratio :2.661599821964717
Arrays.sort took :6230427 Collections.sort took :21954967 ratio :3.52383022865046
Arrays.sort took :8204666 Collections.sort took :16607560 ratio :2.024160398485447
Arrays.sort took :6272619 Collections.sort took :22061291 ratio :3.5170781136236715
Arrays.sort took :8618253 Collections.sort took :19979549 ratio :2.3182829513127543
Arrays.sort took :6198538 Collections.sort took :17002645 ratio :2.743008915973412
Arrays.sort took :6265018 Collections.sort took :17079646 ratio :2.7261926462142645
Arrays.sort took :6302335 Collections.sort took :17040082 ratio :2.7037728080148073
Arrays.sort took :6293948 Collections.sort took :17133482 ratio :2.722215372608735
Arrays.sort took :6272364 Collections.sort took :17099717 ratio :2.7261997231028046
Arrays.sort took :6219540 Collections.sort took :17026849 ratio :2.737637992520347
Arrays.sort took :6231000 Collections.sort took :17149439 ratio :2.7522771625742255
Arrays.sort took :6309215 Collections.sort took :17118779 ratio :2.713297771592821
Arrays.sort took :6200511 Collections.sort took :17123517 ratio :2.7616299688848227
Arrays.sort took :6263169 Collections.sort took :16995685 ratio :2.7135919532109063
Arrays.sort took :6212243 Collections.sort took :17101848 ratio :2.7529264389689843
Arrays.sort took :6247580 Collections.sort took :17089850 ratio :2.735435160494143
Arrays.sort took :6283626 Collections.sort took :17088109 ratio :2.7194662763188004
Arrays.sort took :6312678 Collections.sort took :17055856 ratio :2.7018415955954036
Arrays.sort took :6222695 Collections.sort took :17071263 ratio :2.7433873908330715
Arrays.sort took :6300990 Collections.sort took :17016171 ratio :2.7005551508572463
Arrays.sort took :6262923 Collections.sort took :17084477 ratio :2.727875945465081
Arrays.sort took :6256482 Collections.sort took :17062232 ratio :2.7271287602202006
Arrays.sort took :6259643 Collections.sort took :17036036 ratio :2.721566709155778
Arrays.sort took :6248649 Collections.sort took :16944960 ratio :2.711779778316881
Arrays.sort took :6264515 Collections.sort took :16986876 ratio :2.7116027338109974
Arrays.sort took :6241864 Collections.sort took :17367903 ratio :2.782486609769133
Arrays.sort took :6297429 Collections.sort took :17080086 ratio :2.7122316107097038
Arrays.sort took :6184084 Collections.sort took :17584862 ratio :2.843567778186713
Arrays.sort took :6315776 Collections.sort took :22279278 ratio :3.5275598754610678
Arrays.sort took :6253047 Collections.sort took :17091694 ratio :2.7333384828228544
Arrays.sort took :6291188 Collections.sort took :17147694 ratio :2.725668665441249
Arrays.sort took :6327348 Collections.sort took :17034007 ratio :2.6921242517402235
Arrays.sort took :6284904 Collections.sort took :17049315 ratio :2.712740719667317
Arrays.sort took :6190436 Collections.sort took :17143853 ratio :2.7694096183209065
Arrays.sort took :6301712 Collections.sort took :17070237 ratio :2.7088253160411013
Arrays.sort took :6208193 Collections.sort took :17060372 ratio :2.74804149935416
Arrays.sort took :6247700 Collections.sort took :16961962 ratio :2.7149130079869392
Arrays.sort took :6344996 Collections.sort took :17084627 ratio :2.6926143058246215
Arrays.sort took :6214232 Collections.sort took :17150324 ratio :2.759846108095095
Arrays.sort took :6224359 Collections.sort took :17081254 ratio :2.744259127727048
Arrays.sort took :6256722 Collections.sort took :17005451 ratio :2.7179489515436357
Arrays.sort took :6286439 Collections.sort took :17061112 ratio :2.713954911516679
Arrays.sort took :6250634 Collections.sort took :17091313 ratio :2.7343327092899696
Arrays.sort took :6252900 Collections.sort took :17041659 ratio :2.7254008540037424
Arrays.sort took :6222192 Collections.sort took :17125062 ratio :2.75225547524088
Arrays.sort took :6227037 Collections.sort took :17013314 ratio :2.7321684454420296
Arrays.sort took :6223609 Collections.sort took :17086112 ratio :2.745370411283871
Arrays.sort took :6280777 Collections.sort took :17091821 ratio :2.7212908530266238
Arrays.sort took :6254551 Collections.sort took :17148242 ratio :2.741722307484582
Arrays.sort took :6250927 Collections.sort took :17053331 ratio :2.7281283240069834
Arrays.sort took :6270616 Collections.sort took :17067948 ratio :2.721893351466586
Arrays.sort took :6223093 Collections.sort took :17034584 ratio :2.737317922132933
Arrays.sort took :6286002 Collections.sort took :17128280 ratio :2.7248289135129133
Arrays.sort took :6239485 Collections.sort took :17032062 ratio :2.7297224049741287
Arrays.sort took :6191290 Collections.sort took :17017219 ratio :2.748574045150526
Arrays.sort took :6134110 Collections.sort took :17069485 ratio :2.782715830006309
Arrays.sort took :6207363 Collections.sort took :17052862 ratio :2.747199092432648
Arrays.sort took :6238702 Collections.sort took :17056945 ratio :2.734053493819708
Arrays.sort took :6185356 Collections.sort took :17006088 ratio :2.749411351585907
Arrays.sort took :6309226 Collections.sort took :17056503 ratio :2.703422416632405
Arrays.sort took :6256706 Collections.sort took :17082903 ratio :2.7303349398229675
Arrays.sort took :6194988 Collections.sort took :17069426 ratio :2.7553606237816766
Arrays.sort took :6184266 Collections.sort took :17054641 ratio :2.757746998592881
Arrays.sort took :6271022 Collections.sort took :17086036 ratio :2.724601508334686
Arrays.sort took :6246482 Collections.sort took :17077804 ratio :2.733987546910405
Arrays.sort took :6194985 Collections.sort took :17119911 ratio :2.763511291794895
Arrays.sort took :6319199 Collections.sort took :17444587 ratio :2.760569337980969
Arrays.sort took :6262827 Collections.sort took :17065589 ratio :2.7249018693954024
Arrays.sort took :6301245 Collections.sort took :17195611 ratio :2.728922776371971
Arrays.sort took :6214333 Collections.sort took :17024645 ratio :2.739577199998777
Arrays.sort took :6213116 Collections.sort took :17382033 ratio :2.7976353572024086
Arrays.sort took :6286394 Collections.sort took :17124874 ratio :2.7241171965995132
Arrays.sort took :6166308 Collections.sort took :16998293 ratio :2.756640278104824
Arrays.sort took :6247395 Collections.sort took :16957056 ratio :2.7142602636779007
Arrays.sort took :6245054 Collections.sort took :16994147 ratio :2.72121698227109
Average ratio :2.792654880602193

Moreover, I ran the code locally, 1000 times (instead of 100) and the average ratio was: :3.0616 So, the ratio is still significant and thus worthy of discussion.

Question: Why does Collections.sort() take approximately 3 times of the time taken by Arrays.sort() to sort the same values? Is it because now we're not comparing primitives? Why would that take more time?

Answer 1

So, there are two different methods with totally different algorithms here:

Arrays.sort(int[]) uses a dual-pivot quicksort algorithm.

Collections.sort(List<T>) calls list.sort(null) which in turn calls Arrays.sort(T[]). This uses a Timsort algorithm.

So, let's compare Arrays.sort(int[]) and Arrays.sort(T[]).

1. T[] is a boxed array so there is one extra level of indirection: for each call, you have to unwrap Integer. This certainly leads to an overhead. On the other hand, int[] is a primitive array so all elements are available "immediately".
2. TimSort is a variation of a classic mergesort algorithm. It is faster than mergesort but it still slower than quicksort because
   • quicksort has fewer data movements on random data
   • quicksort requires O(log(n)) extra space while TimSort requires O(n) to provide stability which also leads to an overhead.