Does IF perform better than IF-ELSE?

Test Results

10,000,000 iterations of Block 1

myFlag = 0:    23.8ns per iteration
myFlag = 1:    23.8ns per iteration

10,000,000 iterations of Block 2

myFlag = 0:    23.8ns per iteration
myFlag = 1:    46.8ns per iteration

Block 2 is 96% slower than Block 1. Makes sense, since Block 2 does twice the work in the pessimistic case.

i prefer either case, depending on the situation. If myFlag is rarely ever 1, then it want it to stand out as the edge case that we have to handle. If both are equally likely, i want the if-else syntax. But that’s preference, not fact.

Decades ago, the intel 80286 dual pipeline would stall if a conditional jump was taken, rather than falling through to the next instruction. By the time of the Pentium that went away; the CPU pre-fetches both branch paths. But in the back of my mind i still have a twinge of fear whenever i write code that has the most common outcome in the else clause. Every time i have to remind myself that it doesn’t matter anymore.

Int32 reps = 10000000;

private void Block1(int myFlag)
{
    String width;
    String height;

    Stopwatch sw = new Stopwatch();
    sw.Start();
    for (int i = 0; i < reps; i++)
    {
        if (myFlag == 1)
        {
            width = String.Format("{0:g}%", 60);
            height = String.Format("{0:g}%", 60);
        }
        else
        {
            width = String.Format("{0:g}%", 80);
            height = String.Format("{0:g}%", 80);
        }
    }
    sw.Stop();
    Double time = (Double)sw.Elapsed.Ticks / Stopwatch.Frequency * 1000000000.0 / reps;
    MessageBox.Show(time.ToString() + " ns");
}

private void Block2(int myFlag)
{
    String width;
    String height;

    Stopwatch sw = new Stopwatch();
    sw.Start();
    for (int i = 0; i < reps; i++)
    {
        width = String.Format("{0:g}%", 80);
        height = String.Format("{0:g}%", 80);
        if (myFlag == 1)
        {
            width = String.Format("{0:g}%", 60);
            height = String.Format("{0:g}%", 60);
        }
    }
    sw.Stop();

    Double time = (Double)sw.Elapsed.Ticks / Stopwatch.Frequency * 1000000000.0 / reps;
    MessageBox.Show(time.ToString() + " ns");
}

• String.Format makes IF 96% slower
• GetPercentageString(0.60) makes IF 96% slower

const
   reps = 10000000;

procedure Block1(myflag: Integer);
var
   width, height: string;
   i: Integer;
   t1, t2: Int64;
   time: Extended;
   freq: Int64;
begin
   QueryPerformanceCounter(t1);
   for i := 1 to reps do
   begin
      if myFlag = 1 then
      begin
         width := '60%';
         height := '60%';
      end
      else
      begin
         width := '80%';
         height := '80%';
      end;
   end;
   QueryPerformanceCounter(t2);
   QueryPerformanceFrequency(freq);

   time := (t2-t1) / freq * 1000000000 / reps;
   ShowMessage(FloatToStr(time)+ 'ns');
end;

procedure Block2(myflag: Integer);
var
   width, height: string;
   i: Integer;
   t1, t2: Int64;
   time: Extended;
   freq: Int64;
begin
   QueryPerformanceCounter(t1);
   for i := 1 to reps do
   begin
      width := '80%';
      height := '80%';
      if myFlag = 1 then
      begin
         width := '60%';
         height := '60%';
      end;
   end;
   QueryPerformanceCounter(t2);
   QueryPerformanceFrequency(freq);

   time := (t2-t1) / freq * 1000000000 / reps;
   ShowMessage(FloatToStr(time)+ 'ns');
end;

Doing twice the amount of work takes roughly twice the amount of time.

Answer: IF does not perform better than IF-ELSE.