Global variables slow down code

Question

I was messing around with the worst code I could write, (basicly trying to break things) and i noticed that this piece of code:

for(int i = 0; i < N; ++i)
    tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(x++))))))));
end
std::cout << x;

where N is a global variable runs significantly slower then:

int N = 10000;
for(int i = 0; i < N; ++i)
    tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(x++))))))));
end
std::cout << x;

What happens with a global variable that makes it run slower?

Answer 1

tl;dr: Local version keeps N in a register, global version doesn't. Declare constants with const and it'll be faster no matter how you declare it.

---

Here's the example code I used:

#include <iostream>
#include <math.h>
void first(){
  int x=1;
  int N = 10000;
  for(int i = 0; i < N; ++i)
    tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(x++))))))));
  std::cout << x;
}
int N=10000;
void second(){
  int x=1;
  for(int i = 0; i < N; ++i)
    tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(tan(x++))))))));
  std::cout << x;
}
int main(){
  first();
  second();
}

(named test.cpp).

To look at the assembler code generated I ran g++ -S test.cpp.

I got a huge file but with some smart searching (I searched for tan), I found what I wanted:

from the first function:

Ltmp2:
    movl    $1, -4(%rbp)
    movl    $10000, -8(%rbp) ; N is here !!!
    movl    $0, -12(%rbp)    ;initial value of i is here
    jmp LBB1_2       ;goto the 'for' code logic
LBB1_1:             ;the loop is this segment
    movl    -4(%rbp), %eax
    cvtsi2sd    %eax, %xmm0
    movl    -4(%rbp), %eax
    addl    $1, %eax
    movl    %eax, -4(%rbp)
    callq   _tan
    callq   _tan
    callq   _tan
    callq   _tan
    callq   _tan        
    callq   _tan
    callq   _tan
    movl    -12(%rbp), %eax
    addl    $1, %eax
    movl    %eax, -12(%rbp) 
LBB1_2:
    movl    -12(%rbp), %eax ;value of n kept in register 
    movl    -8(%rbp), %ecx  
    cmpl    %ecx, %eax  ;comparing N and i here
    jl  LBB1_1      ;if less, then go into loop code
    movl    -4(%rbp), %eax

second function:

Ltmp13:
    movl    $1, -4(%rbp)    ;i
    movl    $0, -8(%rbp) 
    jmp LBB5_2
LBB5_1:             ;loop is here
    movl    -4(%rbp), %eax
    cvtsi2sd    %eax, %xmm0
    movl    -4(%rbp), %eax
    addl    $1, %eax
    movl    %eax, -4(%rbp)
    callq   _tan
    callq   _tan
    callq   _tan
    callq   _tan
    callq   _tan
    callq   _tan
    callq   _tan
    movl    -8(%rbp), %eax
    addl    $1, %eax
    movl    %eax, -8(%rbp)
LBB5_2:
    movl    _N(%rip), %eax  ;loading N from globals at every iteration, instead of keeping it in a register
    movl    -8(%rbp), %ecx

So from the assembler code you can see (or not) that , in the local version, N is kept in a register during the entire calculation, whereas in the global version, N is reread from the global at each iteration.

I imagine the main reason why this happens is for things like threading, the compiler can't be sure that N isn't modified.

if you add a const to the declaration of N (const int N=10000), it'll be even faster than the local version though:

    movl    -8(%rbp), %eax
    addl    $1, %eax
    movl    %eax, -8(%rbp)
LBB5_2:
    movl    -8(%rbp), %eax
    cmpl    $9999, %eax ;9999 used instead of 10000 for some reason I do not know
    jle LBB5_1

N is replaced by a constant.

Answer 2

The global version can't be optimized to put it in a register.