Code Complete, 2nd Edition

Data Transformations

Changes in data types can be a powerful aid in reducing program size and improving execution speed. Data-structure design is outside the scope of this book, but modest changes in the implementation of a specific data type can also improve performance. Here are a few ways to tune your data types.

Use Integers Rather Than Floating-Point Numbers

Integer addition and multiplication tend to be faster than floating point. Changing a loop index from a floating point to an integer, for example, can save time:

Cross-Reference

For details on using integers and floating point, see Chapter 12.

Visual Basic Example of a Loop That Uses a Time-Consuming Floating-Point Loop Index

Example 26-20. 

Dim x As Single
For x = 0 to 99
   a( x ) = 0
Next

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