Thread: i < x or i != x?

  1. #1
    Registered User OnionKnight's Avatar
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    i < x or i != x?

    Which would be the best/fastest way for evaluating the loop condition,
    Code:
    while (i < x)
    or
    Code:
    while (i != x)
    ? Assuming that the loop is incrementing i for each iteration, to avoid elitist remarks

  2. #2
    Devil's Advocate SlyMaelstrom's Avatar
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    Well assuming you know that i will at some point be exactly x, then there is no difference. But consider any possibility that might result in i never equaling x. Such as this:

    Code:
    float i = 0.0;
    while (i != 1.0) {
      printf("%.2f\n", i);
      i += .1;
    }
    Last edited by SlyMaelstrom; 03-04-2006 at 09:28 PM. Reason: Cause I had a for loop last time
    Sent from my iPadŽ

  3. #3
    Registered User OnionKnight's Avatar
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    Yes, the value of i will be the same as x's at some point, they are both integers and i is incrementing by one at a time.

  4. #4
    Registered User moi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by OnionKnight
    Which would be the best/fastest way for evaluating the loop condition,
    Code:
    while (i < x)
    or
    Code:
    while (i != x)
    ? Assuming that the loop is incrementing i for each iteration, to avoid elitist remarks
    I'm not an assembly expert, but I know on at least one architecture (ARM) those will both take exactly the same amount of time; cmp and then beq or bge (or bne vs blt); half a dozen in one hand and 6 in the other.

    But even if some architectures have one compare go faster than the other, don't give it any thought. Micro-optimization is bad. Forget "fastest" and just concentrate on "best" - whatever makes sense, is easy to understand and maintain. Always go good coding style.
    hello, internet!

  5. #5
    Registered User OnionKnight's Avatar
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    Yes I usually leave stuff like that up to the compiler but I figured that != would be the same as ! and ==, two operations whereas < would be just one but it seems like they actually do the same amount of work.
    I've come to the conclusion that I'll use != in loops where the value will become the other at some point and < otherwise.

  6. #6
    Guest Sebastiani's Avatar
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    just for fun:

    Code:
    int
    main(void)
    {
    	unsigned i, start, stop, first, second, max = UINT_MAX;
    	i = 0;
    	start = clock();
    	while(i < max) i++;
    	stop = clock();
    	first = stop - start;
    	i = 0;
    	start = clock();
    	while(i != max) i++;
    	stop = clock();
    	second = stop - start;
    	cout << "(i < max): " << first << endl;
    	cout << "(i != max): " << second << endl;
    }
    the first one seems to execute *slightly* faster than the second on my system, but it's negligible. I'd say follow moi's advice.
    Code:
    #include <cmath>
    #include <complex>
    bool euler_flip(bool value)
    {
        return std::pow
        (
            std::complex<float>(std::exp(1.0)), 
            std::complex<float>(0, 1) 
            * std::complex<float>(std::atan(1.0)
            *(1 << (value + 2)))
        ).real() < 0;
    }

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