I've been coding in plain JS and C for a couple of years now, and I'm still uncertain about whether to focus on performance or memory usage. For instance, in a recent project, I had to perform division with an `uint64_t` and a regular positive integer. Since I use that value twice in the function, I'm torn: will calculating it twice eat up more processing power, or is it better to store it in a variable and potentially waste memory? It feels unnecessary to use memory for a variable that's only used twice, even though it will be freed when going out of scope. What should I prioritize—performance or memory—in this situation, and in general?
4 Answers
Ultimately, it depends on your exact use case. In some environments, optimizing for speed is crucial, while in others, it doesn't matter as much. If your application isn't memory-bound or slow currently, don't stress too much over such micro-optimizations.
From my experience, in languages like C, local variables are often just managed on the stack, so you're really not sacrificing significant performance by storing the result. Most likely, the compiler optimizes these calculations quite well anyway, and focusing on keeping your code understandable is more advantageous in the long run.
Thanks for clarifying that! It’s helpful to know the compiler is handling optimizations.
In cases like yours, where you're using the value immediately after its calculation, it's generally better to save it in a variable for clarity and to avoid potential errors. The difference in performance is usually negligible unless you're working in a highly performance-critical section of code—like inside a tight loop.
That makes sense! So, it’s more important to keep the code straightforward unless I notice real performance issues.
It really depends on your current constraints. Are you running low on either performance or memory? If not, you might not need to stress about it. Focus on writing clean and maintainable code first. Only optimize when you actually notice a problem, and remember: 'premature optimization is the root of all evil.'
Exactly! Prioritizing readability and maintainability often leads to performant code anyway. It's wise to consider optimization only when necessary.
Right, it's easier to optimize for performance later if it becomes an issue.