How would one go about optimizing their code?

Question

I'm really curious. If it's something I can start practicing now, I could get a good head start. I'm wondering not just about functions, but classes, loops, etc. Any examples would be a great help.

Answer 1

There are several books and resources for optimizing different aspects of c++ code. Understanding algorithm complexity will go a long way. For example, reducing complexity (like talking something from O(n^2) to O(log(n))) will optimize your code much more than most other "tricks".

A lot of the other optimizations are going to be little things you learn along the way. Like for(int i=0; i<n; ++i) will run at worst as fast as i++, but may be optimized by the compiler to be faster. It executes the for loop exactly the same (try it!). Understanding trees, pointers, and patterns (singleton, factories, etc.) can go a long way.

Answer 2

Example:
Cout << "hello";
Cout << "hello";
Cout << "hello";
Cout << "hello";

To:

for(int i = 1;i < 4;i++) {
Cout << "hello";
};

Or:

int a = 10;
int b = 10;
cout << a + b;

To:

int a,b = 10;
cout << a + b;

You can optimize code in a bunch of ways.

Answer 3

@WakeCode But does one run faster than the other?