Setting all elements of an array to zero

Hi,

int a[1000] = { 0 };

this initializes all elements of the array a to 0. let's say i have changed some elements, and now want to set all items to 0 again. should i go through all elements with a loop and set them to zero one by one? is there a quicker way to achieve it?

thanks in advance

memset?

I'm not quite sure if that's quicker or more efficient, however...

yeah that is exactly what i'm looking for, another method, but as you say, is that faster? anyone knows about the performance of memset over going over all elements?

thanks

IMO, memset would be slower in this case since it steps through the memory one byte at a time. The other loop would step through and set 4 bytes at a time.

Not all zeros are equal.
http://c-faq.com/malloc/calloc.html

There's no guarantee of all-bits-zero representation for pointers and floats.

memset is very efficient. Even if it only sets one byte at a time (and there's no reason it has to), it's probably optimised with assembly language.

So then I guess the point is it would really depend on 1) what library we're talking about and 2) what linker and how each handle memset vs. stepping through an array.

I think you should use memset. That's what it's for, after all.

>anyone knows about the performance of memset over going over all elements?
It's fast enough for most purposes. If memset isn't fast enough for you, you're looking at some fairly heady and non-portable optimizations. Do you really need to squeeze every possible cycle out of this? Too many people optimize when they really don't need to.

nope, i don't wanna get into any hairy stuff, im just looking for the fastest safe method possible, which can possibly be, in this context, looping through each element and memset, i agree with you that it must satisfy my needs.

thanks for all the help and advices you guys have given