Scan json_view strings with SIMD and index large objects

Speed up json_view's parser with SIMD scanning and a hash table
for large objects.

Long runs of string bytes are scanned 16 bytes at a time with NEON
(AArch64, GCC and Clang) and SSE2 (x86-64), both baseline
instruction sets. Keys keep 16 table checks before the vector
loop, because their lengths repeat from record to record; string
values get 8, because their lengths vary more. Non-ASCII text is
validated 16 bytes at a time with simdjson's "lookup4" check
(Keiser and Lemire, 2021), with NEON on AArch64 and, on x86-64,
with SSSE3. SSSE3 is not part of baseline x86-64, so the check is
compiled for SSSE3 with a function attribute and used only where
CPUID reports it, which all x86-64 CPUs since about 2011 do; the
answer is cached in a statically initialized atomic, so there is
no guard of a local static and no global constructor. The same
input is accepted either way. JSON_VIEW_NO_SIMD selects the
portable code.

On x86-64, string runs are now checked vector-first: one SSE2
compare from the first byte finds the end of most keys and short
values, instead of a branch per byte for the first 8-16 bytes.
AArch64 keeps the byte-wise steps, where a NEON mask costs more and
the branches predict well. Entering an object or array no longer
stalls: open() stores the parent's frame field by field instead of
building it on the stack and reading it back with wider loads,
which waited for the narrower stores to retire.

Objects with 128 members or more get an open-addressing hash table
built when the object closes, so operator[], at(), find(),
contains(), count(), value(), and JSON pointers take constant time
on average in such objects; of duplicate keys, the first is kept,
as for the linear search. The idea comes from Boost.JSON.

simdjson is credited in simd.hpp's SPDX block, the README, and
license.md.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

tests/src/unit-json_view.cpp

@@ -1277,3 +1277,60 @@ TEST_CASE("json_view comparison")
         CHECK(a.root() != json_document::parse(other).root());
     }
 }
+
+TEST_CASE("json_view large objects")
+{
+    // objects with 128 members or more are looked up with a hash index
+    for (const std::size_t members :
+            {
+                127u, 128u, 129u, 10000u
+            })
+    {
+        CAPTURE(members)
+        std::string text = "{";
+        for (std::size_t i = 0; i < members; ++i)
+        {
+            text += (i != 0 ? ",\"" : "\"") + std::string(i % 23, 'k') + std::to_string(i) + (i % 7 == 0 ? "\\n" : "") + "\":" + std::to_string(i);
+        }
+        text += R"(,"":"empty key","k1":"a duplicate of an earlier key"})";
+        const json_document d = json_document::parse(text);
+        const json_view v = d.root();
+        const json j = json::parse(text);
+        for (std::size_t i = 0; i < members; ++i)
+        {
+            const std::string key = std::string(i % 23, 'k') + std::to_string(i) + (i % 7 == 0 ? "\n" : "");
+            CHECK(v[key].get<std::size_t>() == i);
+            CHECK(v.contains(key));
+            CHECK(v.find(key).key() == key);
+            CHECK(v.at(key).get<std::size_t>() == i);
+            CHECK(!v.contains(key + "x"));
+        }
+        CHECK(v[""].get_string() == "empty key");
+        CHECK(v["k1"].get<int>() == 1); // the first of duplicate keys, as for small objects
+        CHECK(!v.contains("missing"));
+        CHECK_THROWS_WITH_AS(v.at("missing"), "[json.exception.out_of_range.403] key 'missing' not found", json::out_of_range&);
+        CHECK(v == j);
+        CHECK(v.materialize() == j);
+    }
+
+    SECTION("nested, reused, and in arrays")
+    {
+        std::string inner = "{";
+        for (int i = 0; i < 300; ++i)
+        {
+            inner += (i != 0 ? ",\"m" : "\"m") + std::to_string(i) + "\":" + std::to_string(i);
+        }
+        inner += '}';
+        const std::string text = "[" + inner + ",{\"x\":" + inner + "}," + inner + "]";
+        json_document d = json_document::parse(text);
+        CHECK(d.root()[0]["m299"].get<int>() == 299);
+        CHECK(d.root()[1]["x"]["m150"].get<int>() == 150);
+        CHECK(d.root()[2]["m0"].get<int>() == 0);
+        const std::size_t with_index = d.memory_usage();
+        d.read(std::string("{\"small\": 1}"));
+        CHECK(d.root()["small"].get<int>() == 1);
+        d.read(text);
+        CHECK(d.root()[2]["m7"].get<int>() == 7);
+        CHECK(d.memory_usage() >= with_index / 2);
+    }
+}

tests/src/unit-json_view_builder.cpp

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 #endif
 using nlohmann::json;
 
+#include <array>
 #include <cstdint>
 #include <fstream>
 #include <map>
@@ -142,6 +143,32 @@ void check_same(const std::string& text)
     }
 }
 
+// a string value and a key must be accepted or rejected as json::parse does,
+// and give its value (cheaper than check_same: the options do not matter)
+void check_string(const std::string& content)
+{
+    for (const std::string& text :
+            {
+                "[\"" + content + "\"]", "{\"" + content + "\":1}"
+            })
+    {
+        const bool accepted = json::accept(text);
+        for (const bool sentinel :
+                {
+                    true, false
+                })
+        {
+            const built b = build(text, false, false, sentinel);
+            if (b.ok != accepted || (accepted && value_of(b) != json::parse(text)))
+            {
+                CAPTURE(text)
+                CHECK(b.ok == accepted);
+                CHECK((b.ok && accepted ? value_of(b) == json::parse(text) : true));
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 // a small deterministic generator of documents
 struct generator
 {
@@ -401,3 +428,81 @@ TEST_CASE("json_view builder")
         }
     }
 }
+
+TEST_CASE("json_view builder: strings across vector blocks")
+{
+    // Strings are scanned 8 or 16 bytes at a time (NEON, SSE2, or SWAR) and
+    // non-ASCII text with the vector UTF-8 check (NEON, SSSE3) or one sequence
+    // at a time. Sequences are placed so that they start at every offset
+    // around the block boundaries of keys (16, 32) and values (8, 24), with
+    // text of several lengths after them.
+    const std::array<std::size_t, 16> prefixes = {{0, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31, 32}};
+    const std::array<std::size_t, 3> suffixes = {{0, 3, 17}};
+    const auto around = [&](const std::string & seq, std::size_t prefix, std::size_t suffix)
+    {
+        return std::string(prefix, 'a') + seq + std::string(suffix, 'b');
+    };
+
+    SECTION("every two-byte sequence")
+    {
+        for (unsigned lead = 0x80; lead <= 0xFF; ++lead)
+        {
+            for (unsigned second = 0; second <= 0xFF; ++second)
+            {
+                if (second == '"' || second == '\\')
+                {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                const std::string seq = {static_cast<char>(lead), static_cast<char>(second)};
+                check_string(around(seq, prefixes[(lead + second) % 16], suffixes[second % 3]));
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    SECTION("three- and four-byte sequences")
+    {
+        const std::array<unsigned, 8> conts = {{0x7F, 0x80, 0x8F, 0x90, 0x9F, 0xA0, 0xBF, 0xC0}};
+        for (unsigned lead = 0xE0; lead <= 0xF7; ++lead)
+        {
+            for (const unsigned b2 : conts)
+            {
+                for (const unsigned b3 : conts)
+                {
+                    for (const std::size_t prefix : prefixes)
+                    {
+                        std::string seq = {static_cast<char>(lead), static_cast<char>(b2), static_cast<char>(b3)};
+                        if (lead >= 0xF0)
+                        {
+                            seq += static_cast<char>(prefix % 2 == 0 ? 0x80 : 0xBF);
+                        }
+                        check_string(around(seq, prefix, suffixes[prefix % 3]));
+                        // cut short before the end of the string
+                        check_string(around(seq.substr(0, seq.size() - 1), prefix, suffixes[prefix % 3]));
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    SECTION("long runs of text with one damaged byte")
+    {
+        const std::array<const char*, 7> chars = {{"a", "\xc3\xa9", "\xe3\x81\x82", "\xf0\x9f\x98\x80", "\xed\x9f\xbf", "\xef\xbf\xbf", "\xf4\x8f\xbf\xbf"}};
+        const std::array<char, 11> damage = {{'\x80', '\xbf', '\xc0', '\xc1', '\xe0', '\xed', '\xf5', '\xff', '\x1f', '"', '\\'}};
+        std::mt19937 rng(5295); // NOLINT(cert-msc32-c,cert-msc51-cpp,bugprone-random-generator-seed): reproducible
+        for (int i = 0; i < 4000; ++i)
+        {
+            std::string text;
+            const auto n = rng() % 60;
+            for (unsigned k = 0; k < n; ++k)
+            {
+                text += chars[rng() % chars.size()];
+            }
+            check_string(text);
+            if (!text.empty())
+            {
+                text[rng() % text.size()] = damage[rng() % damage.size()];
+                check_string(text);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}