Low level C/C++ performance?

Question

UPDATE: I just managed to beat my own 32 if code:

void test(char *file_char, unsigned int size)
{
    char* file_ = file_char;
    char* size_x = file_char+size;
    char to_find = 0;

    for(unsigned int i = 0; i < 10000; i++)
    {
        file_char = file_;

        while(*file_char++ != to_find);//skip all characters till we find a 0

        if(*file_char)//some if in order to avoid compiler removing our test code
            cout << "found";
    }
}

The above code requires the 0 to appear at least once in the array otherwise an error will appear BUT it's a bit faster than the if code and MUCH more compact.

Is there any way to make the above code faster? (having a char array and trying to find the position a char appears)?

I wrote some code and I am really puzzled.

init:

int main()
{
    FILE *file;
    file = fopen("C:\\data.txt", "rb");

    static const int size = 60000;

    char *file_char = (char*)malloc(size);

    unsigned int i = 0;
    while(i < size)
        fread(&file_char[i++], 1, 1, file);

    clock_t clock_ = clock();
    test(file_char, size);
    std::cout << ((double)clock()-clock_)/1000;
    return 0;
}

The code bellow takes 3.5 seconds to execute:

void test(char *file_char, unsigned int size)
{
    for(unsigned int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
    {
        unsigned int pos = 0;
        char to_find = 0;
        while(pos < size)
            if(file_char[pos++] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
    }
}

BUT the code bellow takes 1.8 seconds, HALF the time!

void test(char *file_char, unsigned int size)
{
    for(unsigned int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
    {
        unsigned int pos = 0;
        char to_find = 0;
        while(pos < size)
        {
            if(file_char[pos] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+1] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+2] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+3] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+4] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+5] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+6] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+7] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+8] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+9] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+10] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+11] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+12] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+13] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+14] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+15] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+16] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+17] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+18] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+19] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+20] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+21] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+22] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+23] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+24] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+25] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+26] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+27] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+28] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+29] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+30] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";
            else if(file_char[pos+31] == to_find)
                std::cout << "found";

            pos+=32;
        }
    }
}

I am using Visual Studio 2012 x64 and the program never couts anything, because no char is 0. How can this be explained? How to archive the same performance without using 32 ifs?

edit 1: If I create 64 ifs, there is NO speed increase over the 32 ifs version.

edit 2: If I remove the else and leave the ifs the program takes 4 seconds.

Now, how can the above unreasonable results be explained?

Answer 1

Your loop basically consists of two comparisons: pos < size and file_char[pos] == to_find. By unrolling the loop, you're reducing the number of comparisons from 2 * size to (size + size / 32).