JavaFx tableview sort is really slow how to improve sort speed as in java swing

Question

I am working on javaFx application and have created a tableview and have around 100,000+ rows with 10 columns.

I have also created same table using java swing Jtable.

Now I need sorting performance to be better in javaFx if not better than some what near to java swing's jtable.

Right Now I am using sortorder() which sort data by clicking on column headers and sort speed is 20 times slower than Jtable.

Can anyone please help ?

Thank You

Edit:

I am using example 13.8 in this link http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/ui_controls/table-view.htm just has added few line of code to just add 100,000 rows by generating random data.

Answer 1

It took a while, but I think I have figured this out, at least for this example.

In this example, the Person class doesn't have any property accessors (ie there's a getFirstName() method, but no firstNameProperty() method). Sorting by columns has to access the value in each cell in the column via the cell value factory. When there's no property accessor, the cell value factory is going to call getFirstName() and then wrap the result in a new ReadOnlyObjectWrapper on each invocation.

If you make sure the class representing the row data has the appropriate property accessors, then retrieving the value is much more efficient, as it merely returns a reference to the existing StringProperty.

This example sorts 100,000 rows in approximately a second on my system (MacBookPro 8GB RAM, quad core). You can improve performance more by providing an explicit cell value factory, which gets around the need for reflection in computing the cell value. In other words, replace

    firstNameCol.setCellValueFactory(
            new PropertyValueFactory<Person, String>("firstName"));

with

    firstNameCol.setCellValueFactory(new Callback<TableColumn.CellDataFeatures<Person,String>, ObservableValue<String>>() {
      @Override
      public ObservableValue<String> call(CellDataFeatures<Person, String> cdf) {
        return cdf.getValue().firstNameProperty();
      }
    });

The performance saving here is not as dramatic.

Here's the full example:

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.beans.property.SimpleStringProperty;
import javafx.beans.property.StringProperty;
import javafx.beans.value.ObservableValue;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.event.EventHandler;
import javafx.geometry.Insets;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.*;
import javafx.scene.control.TableColumn.CellDataFeatures;
import javafx.scene.control.cell.PropertyValueFactory;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.scene.text.Font;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.util.Callback;

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Random;

public class TableSortPerformanceTest extends Application {


    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    }

    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) {
        Scene scene = new Scene(new Group());
        stage.setTitle("Table View Sample");
        stage.setWidth(550);
        stage.setHeight(550);

        final Label label = new Label("Address Book");
        label.setFont(new Font("Arial", 20));

        final TableView<Person> table = new TableView<Person>();
        table.setEditable(true);

        TableColumn<Person, String> firstNameCol = new TableColumn<Person, String>("First Name");
        firstNameCol.setMinWidth(100);
        firstNameCol.setCellValueFactory(
                new PropertyValueFactory<Person, String>("firstName"));
        firstNameCol.setCellValueFactory(new Callback<TableColumn.CellDataFeatures<Person,String>, ObservableValue<String>>() {
          @Override
          public ObservableValue<String> call(CellDataFeatures<Person, String> cdf) {
            return cdf.getValue().firstNameProperty();
          }
        });

        TableColumn<Person, String> lastNameCol = new TableColumn<Person, String>("Last Name");
        lastNameCol.setMinWidth(100);
        lastNameCol.setCellValueFactory(
                new PropertyValueFactory<Person, String>("lastName"));



        TableColumn<Person, String> emailCol = new TableColumn<Person, String>("Email");
        emailCol.setMinWidth(200);
        emailCol.setCellValueFactory(
                new PropertyValueFactory<Person, String>("email"));


        Random random = new Random();
        for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {
          table.getItems().add(new Person(randomString(random), randomString(random), randomString(random)));
        }
        table.getColumns().addAll(Arrays.asList(firstNameCol, lastNameCol, emailCol));

        long start = new Date().getTime();
        Collections.sort(table.getItems());
        long end   = new Date().getTime();
        System.out.println("Took: " + (end - start));


        final TextField addFirstName = new TextField();
        addFirstName.setPromptText("First Name");
        addFirstName.setMaxWidth(firstNameCol.getPrefWidth());
        final TextField addLastName = new TextField();
        addLastName.setMaxWidth(lastNameCol.getPrefWidth());
        addLastName.setPromptText("Last Name");
        final TextField addEmail = new TextField();
        addEmail.setMaxWidth(emailCol.getPrefWidth());
        addEmail.setPromptText("Email");

        final Button addButton = new Button("Add");
        addButton.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {
            @Override
            public void handle(ActionEvent e) {
                table.getItems().add(new Person(
                        addFirstName.getText(),
                        addLastName.getText(),
                        addEmail.getText()));
                addFirstName.clear();
                addLastName.clear();
                addEmail.clear();
            }
        });

        final HBox hb = new HBox(3);
        hb.getChildren().addAll(addFirstName, addLastName, addEmail, addButton);

        final VBox vbox = new VBox();
        vbox.setSpacing(5);
        vbox.setPadding(new Insets(10, 0, 0, 10));
        vbox.getChildren().addAll(label, table, hb);

        ((Group) scene.getRoot()).getChildren().addAll(vbox);

        stage.setScene(scene);
        stage.show();
    }

    private String randomString(Random random) {
      char[] chars = new char[20];
      for (int i = 0; i < 20; i++) {
        int nextInt = random.nextInt(26);
        nextInt += random.nextBoolean() ? 65 : 97;
        chars[i] = (char) nextInt;
      }
      return new String(chars);
    }

    public static class Person implements Comparable<Person> {

        private final StringProperty firstName;
        private final StringProperty lastName;
        private final StringProperty email;

        private Person(String fName, String lName, String email) {
            this.firstName = new SimpleStringProperty(fName);
            this.lastName = new SimpleStringProperty(lName);
            this.email = new SimpleStringProperty(email);
        }

        public String getFirstName() {
            return firstName.get();
        }

        public void setFirstName(String fName) {
            firstName.set(fName);
        }

        public StringProperty firstNameProperty() {
          return firstName ;
        }

        public String getLastName() {
            return lastName.get();
        }

        public void setLastName(String fName) {
            lastName.set(fName);
        }

        public StringProperty lastNameProperty() {
          return lastName ;
        }

        public String getEmail() {
            return email.get();
        }

        public void setEmail(String fName) {
            email.set(fName);
        }

        public StringProperty emailProperty() {
          return email ;
        }

    @Override
    public int compareTo(Person o) {
      return firstName.get().compareTo(o.getFirstName());
    }
  }
} 

UPDATE: Note this is fixed in JavaFX 8.

Answer 2

I don't know what's up with the speed of the sort on the TableView when you click on the table header - it gets slow with 100,000 rows as you mention in your question.

If you just provide a button which sorts the underlying collection, it sorts many times quicker and the table updates fine (at least under Java 8). Time to sort a column was well under a second.

Button sortByEmail = new Button("Sort by Email");
sortByEmail.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {
  @Override public void handle(ActionEvent event) {
    Collections.sort(table.getItems(), new Comparator<Person>() 
      @Override public int compare(Person o1, Person o2) {
        return o1.getEmail().compareTo(o2.getEmail());
      }
    });
  }
});

Or using Java 8 lambdas:

Button sortByEmail = new Button("Sort by Email");
sortByEmail.setOnAction(event -> 
    Collections.sort(
        table.getItems(), 
        (o1, o2) -> o1.getEmail().compareTo(o2.getEmail())
    )
);

So if you have a lot of items in your table, on the column call setSortable(false) and provide buttons for the user to sort table columns if you need to.

Plugging my laptop into the wall and increasing the maximum memory of the JVM also increased sort performance for large data sets (cutting the time to sort by clicking on a column header with the sample below from 20 seconds to about 10 seconds).

File an enhancement request against the JavaFX issue tracker with the following sample code. The code generates 100,000 rows of random data, and you can check the performance of standard column sorting by clicking on a table column header to sort on a table column and compare that with the performance of sorting by Collections.sort invoked by pressing buttons.

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.beans.property.SimpleStringProperty;
import javafx.collections.FXCollections;
import javafx.collections.ObservableList;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.event.EventHandler;
import javafx.geometry.Insets;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.*;
import javafx.scene.control.cell.PropertyValueFactory;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.scene.text.Font;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Random;

public class Test extends Application {

    private TableView<Person> table = new TableView<Person>();
    private final ObservableList<Person> data =
            FXCollections.observableArrayList(
            new Person("Jacob", "Smith", "jacob.smith@example.com"),
            new Person("Isabella", "Johnson", "isabella.johnson@example.com"),
            new Person("Ethan", "Williams", "ethan.williams@example.com"),
            new Person("Emma", "Jones", "emma.jones@example.com"),
            new Person("Michael", "Brown", "michael.brown@example.com"));
    final HBox hb = new HBox();

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    }

    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) {
        Scene scene = new Scene(new Group());
        stage.setTitle("Table View Sample");
        stage.setWidth(550);
        stage.setHeight(550);

        final Label label = new Label("Address Book");
        label.setFont(new Font("Arial", 20));

        table.setEditable(true);

        TableColumn firstNameCol = new TableColumn("First Name");
        firstNameCol.setMinWidth(100);
        firstNameCol.setCellValueFactory(
                new PropertyValueFactory<Person, String>("firstName"));

        TableColumn lastNameCol = new TableColumn("Last Name");
        lastNameCol.setMinWidth(100);
        lastNameCol.setCellValueFactory(
                new PropertyValueFactory<Person, String>("lastName"));

        TableColumn emailCol = new TableColumn("Email");
        emailCol.setMinWidth(200);
        emailCol.setCellValueFactory(
                new PropertyValueFactory<Person, String>("email"));

        Random random = new Random();
        table.setItems(data);
        for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {
          table.getItems().add(new Person(randomString(random), randomString(random), randomString(random)));
        }
        table.getColumns().addAll(firstNameCol, lastNameCol, emailCol);

        long start = new Date().getTime();
        Collections.sort(table.getItems());
        long end   = new Date().getTime();
        System.out.println("Took: " + (end - start));


        final TextField addFirstName = new TextField();
        addFirstName.setPromptText("First Name");
        addFirstName.setMaxWidth(firstNameCol.getPrefWidth());
        final TextField addLastName = new TextField();
        addLastName.setMaxWidth(lastNameCol.getPrefWidth());
        addLastName.setPromptText("Last Name");
        final TextField addEmail = new TextField();
        addEmail.setMaxWidth(emailCol.getPrefWidth());
        addEmail.setPromptText("Email");

        final Button addButton = new Button("Add");
        addButton.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {
            @Override
            public void handle(ActionEvent e) {
                data.add(new Person(
                        addFirstName.getText(),
                        addLastName.getText(),
                        addEmail.getText()));
                addFirstName.clear();
                addLastName.clear();
                addEmail.clear();
            }
        });

        Button sortByFirstName = new Button("Sort by First Name");
        sortByFirstName.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {
          @Override
          public void handle(ActionEvent event) {
            Collections.sort(table.getItems());
          }
        });

        Button sortByEmail = new Button("Sort by Email");
        sortByEmail.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {
          @Override
          public void handle(ActionEvent event) {
            Collections.sort(table.getItems(), new Comparator<Person>() {
              @Override
              public int compare(Person o1, Person o2) {
                return o1.getEmail().compareTo(o2.getEmail());
              }
            });
          }
        });

        hb.getChildren().addAll(addFirstName, addLastName, addEmail, addButton, sortByFirstName, sortByEmail);
        hb.setSpacing(3);

        final VBox vbox = new VBox();
        vbox.setSpacing(5);
        vbox.setPadding(new Insets(10, 0, 0, 10));
        vbox.getChildren().addAll(label, table, hb);

        ((Group) scene.getRoot()).getChildren().addAll(vbox);

        stage.setScene(scene);
        stage.show();
    }

    private String randomString(Random random) {
      char[] chars = new char[20];
      for (int i = 0; i < 20; i++) {
        int nextInt = random.nextInt(26);
        nextInt += random.nextBoolean() ? 65 : 97;
        chars[i] = (char) nextInt;
      }
      return new String(chars);
    }

    public static class Person implements Comparable<Person> {

        private final SimpleStringProperty firstName;
        private final SimpleStringProperty lastName;
        private final SimpleStringProperty email;

        private Person(String fName, String lName, String email) {
            this.firstName = new SimpleStringProperty(fName);
            this.lastName = new SimpleStringProperty(lName);
            this.email = new SimpleStringProperty(email);
        }

        public String getFirstName() {
            return firstName.get();
        }

        public void setFirstName(String fName) {
            firstName.set(fName);
        }

        public String getLastName() {
            return lastName.get();
        }

        public void setLastName(String fName) {
            lastName.set(fName);
        }

        public String getEmail() {
            return email.get();
        }

        public void setEmail(String fName) {
            email.set(fName);
        }

    @Override
    public int compareTo(Person o) {
      return firstName.get().compareTo(o.getFirstName());
    }
  }
}