Discussion
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Discussion

Avoiding premature optimization does not imply gratuitously hurting efficiency. By premature pessimization we mean writing such gratuitous potential inefficiencies as:

  • Defining pass-by-value parameters when pass-by-reference is appropriate. (See Item 25.)

  • Using postfix ++ when the prefix version is just as good. (See Item 28.)

  • Using assignment inside constructors instead of the initializer list. (See Item 48.)

It is not a premature optimization to reduce spurious temporary copies of objects, especially in inner loops, when doing so doesn't impact code complexity. Item 18 encourages variables that are declared as locally as possible, but includes the exception that it can be sometimes beneficial to hoist a variable out of a loop. Most of the time that won't obfuscate the code's intent at all, and it can actually help clarify what work is done inside the loop and what calculations are loop-invariant. And of course, prefer to use algorithms instead of explicit loops. (See Item 84.)

Two important ways of crafting programs that are simultaneously clear and efficient are to use abstractions (see Items 11 and 36) and libraries (see Item 84). For example, using the standard library's vector, list, map, find, sort and other facilities, which have been standardized and implemented by world-class experts, not only makes your code clearer and easier to understand, but it often makes it faster to boot.

Avoiding premature pessimization becomes particularly important when you are writing a library. You typically can't know all contexts in which your library will be used, so you will want to strike a balance that leans more toward efficiency and reusability in mind, while at the same time not exaggerating efficiency for the benefit of a small fraction of potential callers. Drawing the line is your task, but as Item 7 shows, the bigger fish to focus on is scalability and not a little cycle-squeezing.

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