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How often does branchless programming actually matter? (programming.dev)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/programming@programming.dev
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I've started noticing articles and YouTube videos touting the benefits of branchless programming, making it sound like this is a hot new technique (or maybe a hot old technique) that everyone should be using. But it seems like it's only really applicable to data processing applications (as opposed to general programming) and there are very few times in my career where I've needed to use, much less optimize, data processing code. And when I do, I use someone else's library.

How often does branchless programming actually matter in the day to day life of an average developer?

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[–] 1 point 3 years ago

The better of those articles and videos also emphasize you should test and measure, before and after you "improved" your code.

I'm afraid there is no standard, average solution. You trying to optimize your code might very well cause it to run slower.

So unless you have good reasons (good as in 'proof') to do otherwise, I'd recommend to aim for readable, maintainable code. Which is often not optimized code.

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