IDLSet
======

IDLSet - Fast u64 integer set operations

IDLSet is a specialised library for fast logical set operations on
u64. For example, this means union (or), intersection (and) and not
operations on sets. In the best case, speed ups of 15x have been observed
with the general case performing approximately 4x faster that a Vec<u64>
based implementation.

These operations are heavily used in low-level implementations of databases
for their indexing logic, but has applications with statistical analysis and
other domains that require logical set operations.

How Does It Work?
-----------------

Each set initially is "sparse". This is stored in the manner you expect historically,
using a `Vec<u64>` internally.

::

    [ 0, 1, 2, 3, ... , 1024 ]

You can then call `maybe_compress` on the set, which will look at the content and determine
if it would be beneficial to compress this. When compressed, each value is transformed into
a tuple pair of `range` and `mask`. The range represents the starting value of this set of
64 values, and the mask determines if a value of that range is present. For example:

<p align="center">
	<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Firstyear/idlset/master/static/idl_4.png" width="60%" height="auto" />
</p>

As these now contain a bit mask, we can use CPU operations for logical operations like `AND`, `OR` and
`AND NOT`. This example demonstrates an `AND` operation.

<p align="center">
	<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Firstyear/idlset/master/static/idl_5.png" width="60%" height="auto" />
</p>

Due to this compression, on high density sets, memory is reduced, as is improvements to CPU cache
behaviour due to lower pressure on the caches. It also allows faster seeking through sets to determine
value presence.

<p align="center">
	<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Firstyear/idlset/master/static/idl_6.png" width="60%" height="auto" />
</p>

During operations between compressed and uncompressed sets, the "better" choice of compressed or
uncompressed is preserved for the result set based on the inputs and operation performed.
In other words, the result set may be compressed or uncompressed
depending on the operation and it's interactions, to improve performance of subsequent operations.
This helps to carry forward these optimisation choices to result sets meaning that chained and
many operations over sets, and reduces memory consumption of intermediate set results during
operations.

Contributing
------------

Please open an issue, pr or contact me directly by email (see github)