go benchmark and gc: B/op alloc/op - testing

Question

benchmark code:
func BenchmarkSth(b *testing.B) {
var x []int
b.ResetTimer()
for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
x = append(x, i)
}
}
result:
BenchmarkSth-4 50000000 20.7 ns/op 40 B/op 0 allocs/op
question/s:
where did 40 B/op come from? (any way of tracing + instructions is greatly appreciated)
how is it possible to have 40 B/op while having 0 allocs?
which one affects GC and how? (B/op or allocs/op)
is it really possible to have 0 B/op using append?

Answer 1

The Go Programming Language Specification
Appending to and copying slices
The variadic function append appends zero or more values x to s of
type S, which must be a slice type, and returns the resulting slice,
also of type S.
append(s S, x ...T) S // T is the element type of S
If the capacity of s is not large enough to fit the additional values,
append allocates a new, sufficiently large underlying array that fits
both the existing slice elements and the additional values. Otherwise,
append re-uses the underlying array.
For your example, on average, [40, 41) bytes per operation are allocated to increase the capacity of the slice when necessary. The capacity is increased using an amortized constant time algorithm: up to len 1024 increase to 2 times cap then increase to 1.25 times cap. On average, there are [0, 1) allocations per operation.
For example,
func BenchmarkMem(b *testing.B) {
b.ReportAllocs()
var x []int64
var a, ac int64
b.ResetTimer()
for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
c := cap(x)
x = append(x, int64(i))
if cap(x) != c {
a++
ac += int64(cap(x))
}
}
b.StopTimer()
sizeInt64 := int64(8)
B := ac * sizeInt64 // bytes
b.Log("op", b.N, "B", B, "alloc", a, "lx", len(x), "cx", cap(x))
}
Output:
BenchmarkMem-4 50000000 26.6 ns/op 40 B/op 0 allocs/op
--- BENCH: BenchmarkMem-4
bench_test.go:32: op 1 B 8 alloc 1 lx 1 cx 1
bench_test.go:32: op 100 B 2040 alloc 8 lx 100 cx 128
bench_test.go:32: op 10000 B 386296 alloc 20 lx 10000 cx 12288
bench_test.go:32: op 1000000 B 45188344 alloc 40 lx 1000000 cx 1136640
bench_test.go:32: op 50000000 B 2021098744 alloc 57 lx 50000000 cx 50539520
For op = 50000000,
B/op = floor(2021098744 / 50000000) = floor(40.421974888) = 40
allocs/op = floor(57 / 50000000) = floor(0.00000114) = 0
Read:
Go Slices: usage and internals
Arrays, slices (and strings): The mechanics of 'append'
'append' complexity
To have zero B/op (and zero allocs/op) for append, allocate a slice with sufficient capacity before appending.
For example, with var x = make([]int64, 0, b.N),
func BenchmarkZero(b *testing.B) {
b.ReportAllocs()
var x = make([]int64, 0, b.N)
var a, ac int64
b.ResetTimer()
for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
c := cap(x)
x = append(x, int64(i))
if cap(x) != c {
a++
ac += int64(cap(x))
}
}
b.StopTimer()
sizeInt64 := int64(8)
B := ac * sizeInt64 // bytes
b.Log("op", b.N, "B", B, "alloc", a, "lx", len(x), "cx", cap(x))
}
Output:
BenchmarkZero-4 100000000 11.7 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
--- BENCH: BenchmarkZero-4
bench_test.go:51: op 1 B 0 alloc 0 lx 1 cx 1
bench_test.go:51: op 100 B 0 alloc 0 lx 100 cx 100
bench_test.go:51: op 10000 B 0 alloc 0 lx 10000 cx 10000
bench_test.go:51: op 1000000 B 0 alloc 0 lx 1000000 cx 1000000
bench_test.go:51: op 100000000 B 0 alloc 0 lx 100000000 cx 100000000
Note the reduction in benchmark CPU time from around 26.6 ns/op to around 11.7 ns/op.