Very basic performance question

Rhino · *nix forums Guru Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 449

"Rhino" <rhino1@NOSPAM.sympatico.ca> wrote in message
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Rhino · *nix forums Guru Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 449

Given a loop like this:

for (int ix=0; ix<myArray.length; ix++) {
System.out.println(ix);
}

or especially this:

for (int ix=0; ix<Math.sqrt(shoeSize)*hairlength/(IQ); ix++) {
System.out.println(ix);
}

I've always assumed that it made more sense to look up or calculate the
value in the second term of the for loop, rather than make Java look it up
or calculate it, especially for large numbers of iterations of the loop. It
just made no sense to do the same calculation or lookup a thousand or a
million times; it seemed a lot more reasonable to do the calculation or
lookup ONCE, store the value in a variable, and then plug the variable into
the for loop, like this:

int loopController = Math.sqrt(shoeSize)*hairlength/(IQ);
for (int ix=0; ix<loopController; ix++) {
System.out.println(ix);
}

Is my reasoning sound or does Java have "tricks" (optimizations) that make
it more sensible to leave the lookup or calculation in the loop, this
avoiding the need to create the variable that controls the loop?

I've been wondering about that for a while and am finally getting around to
asking ;-)

I realize that I could set up a benchmark to find out for sure but I'm
betting that the answer is already well-known so I'd rather ask here and
save myself the work ;-)

--
Rhino
---
rhino1 AT sympatico DOT ca
"There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it
so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to
make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies." - C.A.R.
Hoare

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