Comparing the following two expressions
std::bitset<8>(5).count()
__builtin_popcount(5)
which one is better?
int __builtin_popcount(unsigned int);
is a built in function of GCC while std::bitset<N>::count
is a C++ standard.
Both function do the same thing: return the number of bits that are set to true
.
What should you use?
Always tend to use C++ standard's functions because other compilers don't support __builtin_popcount
function.
UPDATE
If you take a look at the statistics made by Google Benchmark tool:
#include <bitset>
static void GccBuiltInPopCount(benchmark::State& state) {
for (auto _ : state) {
__builtin_popcount(5);
}
}
BENCHMARK(GccBuiltInPopCount);
static void StdBitsetCount(benchmark::State& state) {
for (auto _ : state) {
std::bitset<8>(5).count();
}
}
BENCHMARK(StdBitsetCount);
with GCC 9.2 and flags -std=c++2a -O3
, GCC built in function is 10% slower than the std::bitset<N>::count()
function but, since the ASM output is the same for both function, the difference in benchmark could be due to other factors.