zeroallocation

Zeroallocation is a term used to describe practices and design goals aimed at minimizing or eliminating dynamic memory allocations in performance-critical code paths. The core idea is to reduce latency and improve predictability by avoiding the creation of new objects on the heap, which can trigger garbage collection or costly allocator work.

Common techniques include preallocating buffers and reusing them instead of creating new ones, using object pooling or arenas, and performing in-place mutations rather than returning new objects. Additional strategies involve stack allocation where possible, exposing APIs that operate on user-provided buffers, and relying on compiler features such as escape analysis to keep allocations off the heap. In some environments, careful API design, mutable builders, and avoiding temporary temporaries can contribute to zeroallocation behavior.

The concept spans multiple programming ecosystems. In managed languages with garbage collection, zeroallocation emphasizes reducing short-lived allocations in hot paths to lower GC pressure. In systems and performance-oriented languages, it often means choosing stack or arena allocation, or custom allocators, to avoid heap fragmentation and ensure steady latency. Compiler optimizations and language features that analyze object lifetimes play a supporting role in enabling or enhancing zeroallocation approaches.

Trade-offs accompany the goal. Aggressively avoiding allocations can increase code complexity and memory footprint due to pooling, and it may introduce subtle bugs or reduce flexibility. It is usually most beneficial in tight loops, high-throughput services, real-time systems, or other scenarios where predictable latency is critical, and requires careful profiling to justify the added design and maintenance costs.