!
And why you should do it
Code optimisation is one of the most vital aspects of high-performance computing.
We should never waste resources and aim to save where we can. Thinking of web technologies, imagine having to wait whilst the code is run on the server.
These slides will focus on the idea of code optimisation.
Compilation is turning a string of code into either a bunch of machine code (1s and 0s) or into opcode.
Binary can be run natively on the machine. Opcode requires a special runtime that understands the opcode but can run it fast.
C and C++ compile to binary whereas PHP, YASS and Python convert to opcode.
C and C++ compile code before it is run whereas PHP, YASS and Python compile the code each time it is run.
With languages like Python, YASS and PHP, code is interpreted every time it is run. It is compiled to opcode.
We can cache the opcode (YASS and PHP do this already) to save having to recompile the code each time.
But we can also cache in a different manner. If a PHP script reads and transforms the content of a file in to HTML for a webpage every time it is run, we can cache the transformation step so we just open the cached file.
When you write a program as below in Python:
...
if country == "spain":
spainCode()
exit()
elif country == "uk":
ukCode()
exit()
elif country == "germany":
germanyCode()
exit()
...Imagine some 90% of people pick Germany. In order for the code to reach the code for Germany, it must first check if the country is "spain" or "uk" before finally getting to Germany.
The code can be made more effective by putting Germany as the first check, since we know most people are going for it. This becomes a huge improvement as the code gets more complex.
When you write a program as below in Python:
...
if country == "spain":
spainCode()
exit()
elif country == "uk":
ukCode()
exit()
elif country == "germany":
germanyCode()
exit()
...Imagine some 90% of people pick Germany. In order for the code to reach the code for Germany, it must first check if the country is "spain" or "uk" before finally getting to Germany.
The code can be made more effective by putting Germany as the first check, since we know most people are going for it. This becomes a huge improvement as the code gets more complex.
A native function is a function built into a language such as the pow function.
This program has a user-defined function called power and also uses the built-in pow function.
Both do the same thing in the end, but the pow function is already precompiled into binary, whereas the power function needs to be compiled before use.
def power(n):
return n * n
print(pow(2))
print(power(2))Assume we have the following program that searches for an item in an array:
This program is inefficient! It finds an item but then completes the loop even when the item is found.
If we had 100,000 items to search for, this will always loop 100,000 times, even if it finds the item immediately
def linearSearch(items, search):
location = -1
for i in range(0, len(items)):
if items[i] == search:
location = i
return i
items = [2, 6, 9, 11, 22, 7, 34, 8]This program fixes that by ending the second it finds the item it is looking for!
Assume we have the following program that searches for an item in an array:
This program is inefficient! It finds an item but then completes the loop even when the item is found.
If we had 100,000 items to search for, this will always loop 100,000 times, even if it finds the item immediately
def linearSearch(items, search):
for i in range(0, len(items)):
if items[i] == search:
return i
return -1
items = [2, 6, 9, 11, 22, 7, 34, 8]This program fixes that by ending the second it finds the item it is looking for!
Not everyone knows everything about loops.
One area often ignored is that a loop checks it's condition every time it is run:
This program is inefficient! It finds an item but then completes the loop even when the item is found.
If we had 100,000 items to search for, this will always loop 100,000 times, even if it finds the item immediately
items = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
for i in range(0, len(items)):
print(items[i])In this program, it checks the length of the array each time, despite the fact our array is static and the size is always 10. Function calls like the len function are costly in bigger programs.
This could be replaced by something less costly...
items = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
length = len(items)
for i in range(0, length):
print(items[i])This now fixes that problem:
This program is inefficient! It finds an item but then completes the loop even when the item is found.
If we had 100,000 items to search for, this will always loop 100,000 times, even if it finds the item immediately
items = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
for i in range(0, len(items)):
print(items[i])By using a variable we are performing fewer steps to do the same thing. Variable usage is much less demanding than a function call.
This is true in PHP, Python and YASS.
items = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
length = len(items)
for i in range(0, length):
print(items[i])For large scale programs, optimisation is always necessary.
Even if you gain just a 1ms improvement, that can add up later on.
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