Variable to return or return directly? - c

Question

I'm learning to program and sometimes I find that using a variable to return makes my code more readable.
I was wondering if these functions perform the same operations and are equally efficient.
CASE 1:
int Foo1()
{
int x = 5 + 6 + 7; // Return variable
return x;
}
int Foo2(int y)
{
return 5 + 6 + 7;
}
In this case I think that the initialization and sum occur at compile time so there's no difference between them.
CASE 2:
int Foo1(int y)
{
int x = y + 6 + 7; // Return variable
return x;
}
int Foo2(int y)
{
return y + 6 + 7;
}
But, what happen in this case? It seems that the initialization occur at execution time and it has to perform it.
Is returning the value directly faster than initialize a variable and then returning it? Should I always try to return values directly instead using a variable to return?

Answer 1

You can easily try this yourself.
You can get the assembly from your compiler
Without optimization:
(gcc -S -O0 -o src.S src.c)
.file "so_temp.c"
.text
.globl case1Foo1
.type case1Foo1, #function
case1Foo1:
.LFB0:
.cfi_startproc
pushq %rbp
.cfi_def_cfa_offset 16
.cfi_offset 6, -16
movq %rsp, %rbp
.cfi_def_cfa_register 6
movl $18, -4(%rbp)
movl -4(%rbp), %eax
popq %rbp
.cfi_def_cfa 7, 8
ret
.cfi_endproc
.LFE0:
.size case1Foo1, .-case1Foo1
.globl case1Foo2
.type case1Foo2, #function
case1Foo2:
.LFB1:
.cfi_startproc
pushq %rbp
.cfi_def_cfa_offset 16
.cfi_offset 6, -16
movq %rsp, %rbp
.cfi_def_cfa_register 6
movl $18, %eax
popq %rbp
.cfi_def_cfa 7, 8
ret
.cfi_endproc
.LFE1:
.size case1Foo2, .-case1Foo2
.globl case2Foo1
.type case2Foo1, #function
case2Foo1:
.LFB2:
.cfi_startproc
pushq %rbp
.cfi_def_cfa_offset 16
.cfi_offset 6, -16
movq %rsp, %rbp
.cfi_def_cfa_register 6
movl %edi, -20(%rbp)
movl -20(%rbp), %eax
addl $13, %eax
movl %eax, -4(%rbp)
movl -4(%rbp), %eax
popq %rbp
.cfi_def_cfa 7, 8
ret
.cfi_endproc
.LFE2:
.size case2Foo1, .-case2Foo1
.globl case2Foo2
.type case2Foo2, #function
case2Foo2:
.LFB3:
.cfi_startproc
pushq %rbp
.cfi_def_cfa_offset 16
.cfi_offset 6, -16
movq %rsp, %rbp
.cfi_def_cfa_register 6
movl %edi, -4(%rbp)
movl -4(%rbp), %eax
addl $13, %eax
popq %rbp
.cfi_def_cfa 7, 8
ret
.cfi_endproc
.LFE3:
.size case2Foo2, .-case2Foo2
.ident "GCC: (Ubuntu 8.3.0-6ubuntu1) 8.3.0"
.section .note.GNU-stack,"",#progbits
Ther you can see, that the foo2 versions have a few instructions less than the foo1 versions of the functions.
With optimization turned to O3:
(gcc -S -O3 -o src.S src.c)
.file "so_temp.c"
.text
.p2align 4,,15
.globl case1Foo1
.type case1Foo1, #function
case1Foo1:
.LFB0:
.cfi_startproc
movl $18, %eax
ret
.cfi_endproc
.LFE0:
.size case1Foo1, .-case1Foo1
.p2align 4,,15
.globl case1Foo2
.type case1Foo2, #function
case1Foo2:
.LFB5:
.cfi_startproc
movl $18, %eax
ret
.cfi_endproc
.LFE5:
.size case1Foo2, .-case1Foo2
.p2align 4,,15
.globl case2Foo1
.type case2Foo1, #function
case2Foo1:
.LFB2:
.cfi_startproc
leal 13(%rdi), %eax
ret
.cfi_endproc
.LFE2:
.size case2Foo1, .-case2Foo1
.p2align 4,,15
.globl case2Foo2
.type case2Foo2, #function
case2Foo2:
.LFB7:
.cfi_startproc
leal 13(%rdi), %eax
ret
.cfi_endproc
.LFE7:
.size case2Foo2, .-case2Foo2
.ident "GCC: (Ubuntu 8.3.0-6ubuntu1) 8.3.0"
.section .note.GNU-stack,"",#progbits
both versions are exactly the same.
Still I don't think that this is something you should optimize yourself.
In this case readable code should be preferred, especially as code normally isn't compiled with optimizations turned off.

Answer 2

Case 2 is more efficient, but is often not needed as the compiler is extremely likely to optimize case 1 into case 2.
Go for readability if it doesn't hurt performance (as in this case).

Answer 3

Any compiler of at least modest quality will, at even low levels of optimization (such as GCC’s -O1), compile these to the same code. For the most part, any correct optimization you can easily see will be performed by a good compiler.
The C standard does not require compilers to mindlessly compile code into instructions that perform the exact steps in the C source code. It only requires compilers to produce code that has the same effects. Those effects are defined in terms of observable behavior, which includes the output of the program, interactions with the user, and access to volatile objects (special objects you will learn about later). Compilers will eliminate things like intermediate variables as long as they can do so without changing the observable behavior.