What is the fastest way to find if a number is even or odd?

by

It is pretty well known that

static inline int is_odd_A(int x) { return x & 1; }

is more efficient than 

static inline int is_odd_B(int x) { return x % 2; }

But with the optimizer on, will is_odd_B be no different from is_odd_A? No — with gcc-4.2 -O2, we get, (in ARM assembly):

_is_odd_A:
    and r0, r0, #1
    bx  lr

_is_odd_B:
    mov r3, r0, lsr #31
    add r0, r0, r3
    and r0, r0, #1
    rsb r0, r3, r0
    bx  lr

We see that is_odd_B takes 3 more instructions than is_odd_A, the main reason is because

((-1) % 2) == -1
((-1) & 1) ==  1

However, all the following versions will generate the same code as is_odd_A:

#include <stdbool.h>
static inline bool is_odd_D(int x) { return x % 2; }      // note the bool
static inline int  is_odd_E(int x) { return x % 2 != 0; } // note the !=

What does this mean? The optimizer is usually sophisticated enough that, for these simple stuff, the clearest code is enough to guarantee best efficiency.

Leave a Comment

tech