while (1) Vs. for (;;) Is there a speed difference?
In perl, they result in the same opcodes:
$ perl -MO=Concise -e 'for(;;) { print "foo\n" }'
a <@> leave[1 ref] vKP/REFC ->(end)
1 <0> enter ->2
2 <;> nextstate(main 2 -e:1) v ->3
9 <2> leaveloop vK/2 ->a
3 <{> enterloop(next->8 last->9 redo->4) v ->4
- <@> lineseq vK ->9
4 <;> nextstate(main 1 -e:1) v ->5
7 <@> print vK ->8
5 <0> pushmark s ->6
6 <$> const[PV "foo\n"] s ->7
8 <0> unstack v ->4
-e syntax OK
$ perl -MO=Concise -e 'while(1) { print "foo\n" }'
a <@> leave[1 ref] vKP/REFC ->(end)
1 <0> enter ->2
2 <;> nextstate(main 2 -e:1) v ->3
9 <2> leaveloop vK/2 ->a
3 <{> enterloop(next->8 last->9 redo->4) v ->4
- <@> lineseq vK ->9
4 <;> nextstate(main 1 -e:1) v ->5
7 <@> print vK ->8
5 <0> pushmark s ->6
6 <$> const[PV "foo\n"] s ->7
8 <0> unstack v ->4
-e syntax OK
Likewise in GCC:
#include <stdio.h>
void t_while() {
while(1)
printf("foo\n");
}
void t_for() {
for(;;)
printf("foo\n");
}
.file "test.c"
.section .rodata
.LC0:
.string "foo"
.text
.globl t_while
.type t_while, @function
t_while:
.LFB2:
pushq %rbp
.LCFI0:
movq %rsp, %rbp
.LCFI1:
.L2:
movl $.LC0, %edi
call puts
jmp .L2
.LFE2:
.size t_while, .-t_while
.globl t_for
.type t_for, @function
t_for:
.LFB3:
pushq %rbp
.LCFI2:
movq %rsp, %rbp
.LCFI3:
.L5:
movl $.LC0, %edi
call puts
jmp .L5
.LFE3:
.size t_for, .-t_for
.section .eh_frame,"a",@progbits
.Lframe1:
.long .LECIE1-.LSCIE1
.LSCIE1:
.long 0x0
.byte 0x1
.string "zR"
.uleb128 0x1
.sleb128 -8
.byte 0x10
.uleb128 0x1
.byte 0x3
.byte 0xc
.uleb128 0x7
.uleb128 0x8
.byte 0x90
.uleb128 0x1
.align 8
.LECIE1:
.LSFDE1:
.long .LEFDE1-.LASFDE1
.LASFDE1:
.long .LASFDE1-.Lframe1
.long .LFB2
.long .LFE2-.LFB2
.uleb128 0x0
.byte 0x4
.long .LCFI0-.LFB2
.byte 0xe
.uleb128 0x10
.byte 0x86
.uleb128 0x2
.byte 0x4
.long .LCFI1-.LCFI0
.byte 0xd
.uleb128 0x6
.align 8
.LEFDE1:
.LSFDE3:
.long .LEFDE3-.LASFDE3
.LASFDE3:
.long .LASFDE3-.Lframe1
.long .LFB3
.long .LFE3-.LFB3
.uleb128 0x0
.byte 0x4
.long .LCFI2-.LFB3
.byte 0xe
.uleb128 0x10
.byte 0x86
.uleb128 0x2
.byte 0x4
.long .LCFI3-.LCFI2
.byte 0xd
.uleb128 0x6
.align 8
.LEFDE3:
.ident "GCC: (Ubuntu 4.3.3-5ubuntu4) 4.3.3"
.section .note.GNU-stack,"",@progbits
So I guess the answer is, they're the same in many compilers. Of course, for some other compilers this may not necessarily be the case, but chances are the code inside of the loop is going to be a few thousand times more expensive than the loop itself anyway, so who cares?
There's not much reason to prefer one over the other. I do think that while(1)
and particularly while(true)
are more readable than for(;;)
, but that's just my preference.