[LUCENE-4634] PackedInts: streaming API that supports variable numbers of bits per value

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Component/s: core/other
• Lucene Fields: New
• Assignee: Adrien Grand
• Reporter: Adrien Grand
• Created: 18/Dec/12 13:19
• Updated: 28/Aug/22 13:34
• Resolved: 21/Dec/12 09:51

Description

It could be convenient to have a streaming API (writers and iterators, no random access) that supports variable numbers of bits per value. Although this would be much slower than the current fixed-size APIs, it could help save bytes in our codec formats.

The API could look like:

Iterator {
  long next(int bitsPerValue);
}

Writer {
  void write(long value, int bitsPerValue); // assert PackedInts.bitsRequired(value) <= bitsPerValue;
}