Improving program performance

This information discusses coding guidelines that improve the performance of a C or C++ application. While they are most effective when creating new code, these guidelines can also provide a gradual performance improvement when they are consistently used when porting or fixing areas of the code. The guidelines cover the following topics:

• Writing code for performance
• Using C++ constructs in performance-critical code
• Using explicit instantiation declarations (C++11 only)
• ANSI aliasing rules
• Using ANSI aliasing rules
• Using variables
• Passing function arguments
• Coding expressions
• Coding conversions
• Arithmetical considerations
• Using loops and control constructs
• Choosing a data type
• Using library extensions
• Using #pragmas
• Using rvalue references (C++11)