Feature #21216: Implement Set as a core class

• Status: Open
• Assignee: -
• Target version: -

[jeremyevans0 (Jeremy Evans)]

I propose to implement Set as a core class. Set has been an autoloaded standard library since Ruby 3.2. The standard library Set is less efficient than it could be, as it uses Hash for storage, which stores unnecessary values for each item in the set.

I've submitted a pull request that implements Set as a core class: https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/13074

Implementation details for the pull request:

• Core Set uses a modified version of st_table, named set_table. Other than s/st_/set_/, the main difference is that the stored records do not have values, making them 1/3 smaller. st_table_entry stores hash, key, and record (value), while set_table_entry only stores hash and key. This results in large sets using ~33% less memory compared to stdlib Set. For small sets, core Set uses 20% less memory (160 bytes, while stdlib set uses 40 for Set and 160 for Hash).

• All methods are implemented as cfuncs, except the pretty_print methods, which were moved to lib/pp.rb (which is where the pretty_print methods for other core classes are defined). As is typical for core classes, internal calls call C functions and not Ruby methods. For example, to check if something is a Set, rb_obj_is_kind_of is used, instead of calling is_a?(Set) on the related object.

• Almost all methods use the same algorithm that the pure-Ruby implementation used. The exception is when calling Set#divide with a block with 2-arity. stdlib Set used a lazy-loaded tsort to implement this. I developed an algorithm that only allocates a single intermediate hash and does not need tsort.

• The flatten_merge protected method is no longer necessary, so it is not implemented (it could be).

• Similar to Hash/Array, subclasses of Set are no longer reflected in inspect output.

• Documentation from stdlib Set was moved to core Set, with minor updates.

I developed a comprehensive benchmark suite for all public Set methods (results attached). As you would expect, core Set is faster than stdlib Set in the majority of cases (90%), and multiple times faster in many cases (47% of cases are at least 2x faster, 31% of cases are at least 4x faster). There are a few cases where it is significantly slower:

• Set.new with no arguments (~1.6x)
• Set#compare_by_identity for small sets (~1.3x)
• Set#clone for small sets (~1.5x)
• Set#dup for small sets (~1.7x)

Some of these are slower as Set does not currently use the AR table optimization that Hash does, so a new set_table is initialized for each Set. I'm not sure it's worth the complexity to have an AR table-like optimization for small sets (for hashes it makes sense, as small hashes are used everywhere in Ruby).

The rbs and repl_type_completor bundled gems will need updates to support core Set. The pull request marks them as allowed failures.

This passes all set tests with no changes. The following specs needed modification:

• Modifying frozen set error message (changed for the better)
• Set#divide when passed a 2-arity block no longer yields the same object as both the first and second argument (this seems like an issue with the previous implementation).
• Set-like objects that override is_a? such that is_a?(Set) return true are no longer treated as Set instances.
• Set.allocate.hash is no longer the same as nil.hash
• Set#join no longer calls Set#to_a (it calls the underlying C function).
• Set#flatten_merge protected method is not implemented.

Previously, set.rb added a SortedSet autoload, which loads set/sorted_set.rb. This replaces the Set autoload in prelude.rb with a SortedSet autoload, but I recommend removing it and set/sorted_set.rb before the release of Ruby 3.5.

This moves test/set/test_set.rb to test/ruby/test_set.rb, reflecting that switch to a core class. This does not move the spec files, as I'm not sure how they should be handled currently. Eventually, the set spec files should be moved to spec/ruby/core, but maybe not until Ruby 3.4 is no longer supported.

This does not add any functions to the C-API (all functions in set.c are static). I think such functions can be added later as we find other places in core where it makes sense to use a Set instead of a Hash or Array, or as we get requests from extension authors.

This is partially inspired by changes in Python 2.4 (released in November 2004), which changed the set implementation from a standard library class backed by a hash (dict in Python terms) to having it as a core class.

[hsbt (Hiroshi SHIBATA)]

• Related to Feature #16989: Sets: need ♥️ added