Reset C int array to zero : the fastest way?

c++ c arrays memset
Vincent picture Vincent · Feb 5, 2012 · Viewed 177.2k times · Source

Assuming that we have a T myarray[100] with T = int, unsigned int, long long int or unsigned long long int, what is the fastest way to reset all its content to zero (not only for initialization but to reset the content several times in my program)? Maybe with memset?

Same question for a dynamic array like T *myarray = new T[100].

Answer

Matteo Italia picture Matteo Italia · Feb 5, 2012

memset (from <string.h>) is probably the fastest standard way, since it's usually a routine written directly in assembly and optimized by hand.

memset(myarray, 0, sizeof(myarray)); // for automatically-allocated arrays
memset(myarray, 0, N*sizeof(*myarray)); // for heap-allocated arrays, where N is the number of elements

By the way, in C++ the idiomatic way would be to use std::fill (from <algorithm>):

std::fill(myarray, myarray+N, 0);

which may be optimized automatically into a memset; I'm quite sure that it will work as fast as memset for ints, while it may perform slightly worse for smaller types if the optimizer isn't smart enough. Still, when in doubt, profile.

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