What is more efficient? Using pow to square or just multiply it with itself?

Question

What of these two methods is in C more efficient? And how about:

pow(x,3)

vs.

x*x*x // etc?

Answer 1

I tested the performance difference between x*x*... vs pow(x,i) for small i using this code:

#include <cstdlib>
#include <cmath>
#include <boost/date_time/posix_time/posix_time.hpp>

inline boost::posix_time::ptime now()
{
    return boost::posix_time::microsec_clock::local_time();
}

#define TEST(num, expression) \
double test##num(double b, long loops) \
{ \
    double x = 0.0; \
\
    boost::posix_time::ptime startTime = now(); \
    for (long i=0; i<loops; ++i) \
    { \
        x += expression; \
        x += expression; \
        x += expression; \
        x += expression; \
        x += expression; \
        x += expression; \
        x += expression; \
        x += expression; \
        x += expression; \
        x += expression; \
    } \
    boost::posix_time::time_duration elapsed = now() - startTime; \
\
    std::cout << elapsed << " "; \
\
    return x; \
}

TEST(1, b)
TEST(2, b*b)
TEST(3, b*b*b)
TEST(4, b*b*b*b)
TEST(5, b*b*b*b*b)

template <int exponent>
double testpow(double base, long loops)
{
    double x = 0.0;

    boost::posix_time::ptime startTime = now();
    for (long i=0; i<loops; ++i)
    {
        x += std::pow(base, exponent);
        x += std::pow(base, exponent);
        x += std::pow(base, exponent);
        x += std::pow(base, exponent);
        x += std::pow(base, exponent);
        x += std::pow(base, exponent);
        x += std::pow(base, exponent);
        x += std::pow(base, exponent);
        x += std::pow(base, exponent);
        x += std::pow(base, exponent);
    }
    boost::posix_time::time_duration elapsed = now() - startTime;

    std::cout << elapsed << " ";

    return x;
}

int main()
{
    using std::cout;
    long loops = 100000000l;
    double x = 0.0;
    cout << "1 ";
    x += testpow<1>(rand(), loops);
    x += test1(rand(), loops);

    cout << "\n2 ";
    x += testpow<2>(rand(), loops);
    x += test2(rand(), loops);

    cout << "\n3 ";
    x += testpow<3>(rand(), loops);
    x += test3(rand(), loops);

    cout << "\n4 ";
    x += testpow<4>(rand(), loops);
    x += test4(rand(), loops);

    cout << "\n5 ";
    x += testpow<5>(rand(), loops);
    x += test5(rand(), loops);
    cout << "\n" << x << "\n";
}

Results are:

1 00:00:01.126008 00:00:01.128338 
2 00:00:01.125832 00:00:01.127227 
3 00:00:01.125563 00:00:01.126590 
4 00:00:01.126289 00:00:01.126086 
5 00:00:01.126570 00:00:01.125930 
2.45829e+54

Note that I accumulate the result of every pow calculation to make sure the compiler doesn't optimize it away.

If I use the std::pow(double, double) version, and loops = 1000000l, I get:

1 00:00:00.011339 00:00:00.011262 
2 00:00:00.011259 00:00:00.011254 
3 00:00:00.975658 00:00:00.011254 
4 00:00:00.976427 00:00:00.011254 
5 00:00:00.973029 00:00:00.011254 
2.45829e+52

This is on an Intel Core Duo running Ubuntu 9.10 64bit. Compiled using gcc 4.4.1 with -o2 optimization.

So in C, yes x*x*x will be faster than pow(x, 3), because there is no pow(double, int) overload. In C++, it will be the roughly same. (Assuming the methodology in my testing is correct.)

---

This is in response to the comment made by An Markm:

Even if a using namespace std directive was issued, if the second parameter to pow is an int, then the std::pow(double, int) overload from <cmath> will be called instead of ::pow(double, double) from <math.h>.

This test code confirms that behavior:

#include <iostream>

namespace foo
{

    double bar(double x, int i)
    {
        std::cout << "foo::bar\n";
        return x*i;
    }


}

double bar(double x, double y)
{
    std::cout << "::bar\n";
    return x*y;
}

using namespace foo;

int main()
{
    double a = bar(1.2, 3); // Prints "foo::bar"
    std::cout << a << "\n";
    return 0;
}