I have created a quick and dirty micro benchmark based on your code. The results are:
loop: 3192
lambda: 3140
lambda parallel: 868
So the loop and lambda are equivalent and the parallel stream significantly improves the performance. I suspect your results are unreliable due to your benchmarking methodology.
public static void main(String[] args) {
int sum = 0;
//warmup
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
solve();
solveLambda();
solveLambdaParallel();
}
{
long start = System.nanoTime();
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
sum += solve();
}
long end = System.nanoTime();
System.out.println("loop: " + (end - start) / 1_000_000);
}
{
long start = System.nanoTime();
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
sum += solveLambda();
}
long end = System.nanoTime();
System.out.println("lambda: " + (end - start) / 1_000_000);
}
{
long start = System.nanoTime();
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
sum += solveLambdaParallel();
}
long end = System.nanoTime();
System.out.println("lambda parallel : " + (end - start) / 1_000_000);
}
System.out.println(sum);
}
public static int digitSum(BigInteger x) {
int sum = 0;
for (char c : x.toString().toCharArray()) {
sum += Integer.valueOf(c + "");
}
return sum;
}
public static int solve() {
int max = 0;
for (int i = 1; i < 100; i++) {
for (int j = 1; j < 100; j++) {
max = Math.max(max, digitSum(BigInteger.valueOf(i).pow(j)));
}
}
return max;
}
public static int solveLambda() {
return IntStream.range(1, 100)
.map(i -> IntStream.range(1, 100).map(j -> digitSum(BigInteger.valueOf(i).pow(j))).max().getAsInt())
.max().getAsInt();
}
public static int solveLambdaParallel() {
return IntStream.range(1, 100)
.parallel()
.map(i -> IntStream.range(1, 100).map(j -> digitSum(BigInteger.valueOf(i).pow(j))).max().getAsInt())
.max().getAsInt();
}
I have also run it with jmh which is more reliable than manual tests. The results are consistent with above (micro seconds per call):
Benchmark Mode Mean Units
c.a.p.SO21968918.solve avgt 32367.592 us/op
c.a.p.SO21968918.solveLambda avgt 31423.123 us/op
c.a.p.SO21968918.solveLambdaParallel avgt 8125.600 us/op