What’s the quickest way to determine if an int is an even number
2,4,6,8…
Anything such as int.even or int.odd returning true/false? I want to
test the length of an array and add one element to it if it has an odd
number of elements.
Thank you!
From: “Brad T.” [email protected]
What’s the quickest way to determine if an int is an even number
2,4,6,8…
Anything such as int.even or int.odd returning true/false? I want to
test the length of an array and add one element to it if it has an odd
number of elements.
class Integer
def even?
(self & 1) == 0
end
end
Hope this helps,
Bill
number % 2 == 0 #even
number % 2 == 1 #odd
Mark
On 10/25/06, Brad T. [email protected] wrote:
What’s the quickest way to determine if an int is an even number
2,4,6,8…
Anything such as int.even or int.odd returning true/false? I want to
test the length of an array and add one element to it if it has an odd
number of elements.Thank you!
Integer#[n] returns a 1 or 0 corresponding to bit n, with n=0 being
the least significant bit.
so
Even:
an_int[0].zero?
Odd:
an_int[0].nonzero?
–
Rick DeNatale
My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
On 10/25/06, Brad T. [email protected] wrote:
What’s the quickest way to determine if an int is an even number
2,4,6,8…
Anything such as int.even or int.odd returning true/false? I want to
test the length of an array and add one element to it if it has an odd
number of elements.
You can determine if a number is odd by doing this:
class Fixnum
def odd?
if self % 2 == 0
return nil
else
return true
end
end
def even?
if self % 2 == 0
return true
else
return nil
end
end
end
Then just call it like this:
2.odd?
and you’ll get nil
3.odd?
and you’ll get true
The above is messy, I’m sure it can be cleaned up, but you get the idea.
–
Robert W. Oliver II
President, OCS Solutions, Inc. - Web Hosting and Development
Toll-Free Phone - 1-800-672-8415
OCS Ruby Forums - http://www.rubyforums.com/
My Blog - http://www.rwoliver.com/
Brad T. wrote:
Thanks for all the examples guys! Being Ruby, I thought there might be
some super simple method that just magically did this. I’ll stick with
the old-fashioned modulo test.
If speed matters, the modulo test is way slower than testing the LSB.
Thanks for all the examples guys! Being Ruby, I thought there might be
some super simple method that just magically did this. I’ll stick with
the old-fashioned modulo test.
Paul L. wrote:
Brad T. wrote:
Thanks for all the examples guys! Being Ruby, I thought there might be
some super simple method that just magically did this. I’ll stick with
the old-fashioned modulo test.If speed matters, the modulo test is way slower than testing the LSB.
Do you mean on a specific architecture, or is there a Ruby-specific
reason for one to be slower than the other?
On 10/25/06, Jeffrey S. [email protected] wrote:
reason for one to be slower than the other?
Not really ruby-specific, and for the most part architecture
independent.
Modulo basically involves an integer division operation, whereas bit
testing is a simple logical and with a mask.
(int & 1).zero? is probably faster than
int[0].zero?
Since the latter generates the mask using the bit position.
and both should be faster than
(int % 2).zero?
But it it’s performance critical, benchmarking is recommended to
verify. One should never simply take ‘rules of thumb’ for granted.
–
Rick DeNatale
My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
On 10/25/06, Rick DeNatale [email protected] wrote:
(int & 1).zero? is probably faster than
–
Rick DeNataleMy blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
An extremely quick “benchmark”
0.upto(1000000) do |i|
(i & 1).zero?
end
0.upto(1000000) do |i|
i[0].zero?
end
0.upto(1000000) do |i|
(i % 2).zero?
end
I ran each of the above, and all of them averaged between, 500ms, and
550ms
of sys time. So I’d say that realistically there is no significant
performance difference in any of the methods.
On Thu, 26 Oct 2006 01:19:08 +0000, Jeffrey S. wrote:
reason for one to be slower than the other?
Modulo uses division hardware, which is slower than the hardware for
bitwise operations. Most C compilers know how to optimize this sort of
thing when it’s known in advance that you’re doing mod 2. I doubt Ruby’s
that smart.
–Ken
Rick DeNatale wrote:
verify. One should never simply take ‘rules of thumb’ for granted.
Let’s just do it rather than speculating:
require ‘benchmark’
ITERATIONS = 1_000_000
MAX_INT = 2 ** 30
NUMS = (1…ITERATIONS).map{ rand(MAX_INT) }
Benchmark.bmbm{ |x|
x.report ‘(n % 2).zero?’ do
NUMS.each{ |n|
(n % 2).zero?
}
end
x.report ‘n[0].zero?’ do
NUMS.each{ |n|
n[0].zero?
}
end
x.report ‘(n & 1).zero?’ do
NUMS.each{ |n|
(n & 1).zero?
}
end
}
#=> Rehearsal -------------------------------------------------
#=> (n % 2).zero? 2.060000 0.020000 2.080000 ( 2.244595)
#=> n[0].zero? 1.960000 0.010000 1.970000 ( 2.145238)
#=> (n & 1).zero? 1.990000 0.020000 2.010000 ( 2.275232)
#=> ---------------------------------------- total: 6.060000sec
#=>
#=> user system total real
#=> (n % 2).zero? 2.070000 0.010000 2.080000 ( 2.315105)
#=> n[0].zero? 1.960000 0.020000 1.980000 ( 2.143038)
#=> (n & 1).zero? 1.990000 0.010000 2.000000 ( 2.173120)
There is a very, very, very small difference in speed.
Phrogz wrote:
But it it’s performance critical, benchmarking is recommended to
x.report ‘(n % 2).zero?’ do#=> (n & 1).zero? 1.990000 0.020000 2.010000 ( 2.275232)
#=> ---------------------------------------- total: 6.060000sec
#=>
#=> user system total real
#=> (n % 2).zero? 2.070000 0.010000 2.080000 ( 2.315105)
#=> n[0].zero? 1.960000 0.020000 1.980000 ( 2.143038)
#=> (n & 1).zero? 1.990000 0.010000 2.000000 ( 2.173120)There is a very, very, very small difference in speed.
I feel like Alice falling into the rabbit hole. I never thought I would
see
the day when the difference between a division and a bit test would be
reduced to insignificance by other factors. Obviously I started thinking
about this (and developing my prejudices) before there were numeric
coprocessors.
Nice demonstration, BTW.
On 10/26/06, Phrogz [email protected] wrote:
But it it’s performance critical, benchmarking is recommended to
x.report ‘(n % 2).zero?’ do#=> (n & 1).zero? 1.990000 0.020000 2.010000 ( 2.275232)
#=> ---------------------------------------- total: 6.060000sec
#=>
#=> user system total real
#=> (n % 2).zero? 2.070000 0.010000 2.080000 ( 2.315105)
#=> n[0].zero? 1.960000 0.020000 1.980000 ( 2.143038)
#=> (n & 1).zero? 1.990000 0.010000 2.000000 ( 2.173120)There is a very, very, very small difference in speed.
Which is why I suggested actually doing the benchmarks after
explaining why mod would be expected to be slower.
Now I took this benchmark and simplified it, taking out the zero? call
in an attempt to isolate the cost of each approach. I also added a
benchmark of an empty loop. On my machine this seems to make the hot
run of mod FASTER than bit testing on 1.8, but not on 1.9:
rick@frodo:/public/rubyscripts$ ruby bitbm.rb
Rehearsal ----------------------------------------------
empty loop 1.840000 0.410000 2.250000 ( 3.366799)
n % 2 3.680000 0.910000 4.590000 ( 5.636832)
n[0] 3.650000 1.020000 4.670000 ( 9.325569)
(n & 1) 3.890000 0.840000 4.730000 ( 6.346543)
------------------------------------ total: 16.240000sec
user system total real
empty loop 1.790000 0.480000 2.270000 ( 3.695585)
n % 2 3.700000 0.880000 4.580000 ( 8.864955)
n[0] 3.740000 0.910000 4.650000 ( 13.832782)
(n & 1) 3.850000 0.870000 4.720000 ( 12.540741)
rick@frodo:/public/rubyscripts$ ruby1.9 bitbm.rb
Rehearsal ----------------------------------------------
empty loop 1.280000 0.010000 1.290000 ( 1.964290)
n % 2 2.900000 0.010000 2.910000 ( 6.053066)
n[0] 2.370000 0.000000 2.370000 ( 3.572928)
(n & 1) 2.660000 0.010000 2.670000 ( 4.322753)
------------------------------------- total: 9.240000sec
user system total real
empty loop 1.230000 0.000000 1.230000 ( 2.415479)
n % 2 2.750000 0.010000 2.760000 ( 4.028753)
n[0] 2.390000 0.000000 2.390000 ( 3.322041)
(n & 1) 2.400000 0.010000 2.410000 ( 3.548835)
And n[0] seems faster than n & 1 which is a slight surprise, to me at
least.
By the way, is the actual meaning of user, system, total, and real
documented anywhere. I’ve looked around a few times, and haven’t
uncovered it. I guess I could try to devine it by reading the code
for benchmark, but…
Here’s my version of Phrogz benchmark code FWIW;
require ‘benchmark’
ITERATIONS = 1_000_000
MAX_INT = 2 ** 30
NUMS = (1…ITERATIONS).map{ rand(MAX_INT) }
Benchmark.bmbm{ |x|
x.report ‘empty loop’ do
NUMS.each {|n|}
end
x.report ‘n % 2’ do
NUMS.each{ |n|
n % 2
}
end
x.report ‘n[0]’ do
NUMS.each{ |n|
n[0]
}
end
x.report ‘(n & 1)’ do
NUMS.each{ |n|
(n & 1)
}
end
}
Rick DeNatale
My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
Rick DeNatale wrote:
/ …
By the way, is the actual meaning of user, system, total, and real
documented anywhere. I’ve looked around a few times, and haven’t
uncovered it. I guess I could try to devine it by reading the code
for benchmark, but…
System time is time spent outside userspace, e.g. direct kernel calls.
User time is time spent directly executing user code in userspace.
I think total time and real time are self-explanatory, but just in case
…
total time is system + user + kernel overhead not properly accounted
for,
and real time is simply an RTC measurement at the end of the process
life
subtracted from the same at the beginning. It is expected (in a manner
of
speaking) that none of these quantities will add as one would expect.
Paul L. wrote:
User time is time spent directly executing user code in userspace.
I think total time and real time are self-explanatory, but just in case …
total time is system + user + kernel overhead not properly accounted for,
and real time is simply an RTC measurement at the end of the process life
subtracted from the same at the beginning. It is expected (in a manner of
speaking) that none of these quantities will add as one would expect.
I actually dug into this a few weeks ago for the RHEL 3 version of the
2.4.21 Linux kernel. It’s mildly complicated and changes from version to
version of the Linux kernel, especially the scheduler. And the external
tools don’t always “do the right thing” either. And I only looked at
Linux; I’m not in possession of the same information for BSD or MacOS. I
can probably track it down for Windows, however – it’s documented in
Mark Friedman’s book in the Windows 2003 Server Resource Kit.
M. Edward “That Guy” Borasky
P.S.: Paul’s response is essentially correct and “close enough for all
practical purposes”. I get paid to care about the cases when it isn’t.
Ken B. wrote:
reason for one to be slower than the other?
Modulo uses division hardware, which is slower than the hardware for
bitwise operations.
On what modern architecture? (I write x86 firmware.)
On 26/10/2006, at 9:25 AM, Robert O. wrote:
def even?
if self % 2 == 0
return true
else
return nil
end
end
end
Argh! Ok, I keep coming across code like this, and it’s driving me
nuts. It’s like writing:
if true then true else false end
Well, duh! 
Just write this:
class Fixnum
def odd?
self % 2 == 1
end
def even?
self % 2 == 0
end
end
Pete Y.
On 10/26/06, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky [email protected] wrote:
System time is time spent outside userspace, e.g. direct kernel calls.
2.4.21 Linux kernel. It’s mildly complicated and changes from version to
Thanks guys, I figured that it was something like that. I looked at
the source code for benchmark and it’s just getting Process.times
before and after the block.
That said, I wonder what these presumably purely computational blocks
are doing in the kernel at all. In a way that’s why I wasn’t sure, in
the context of ruby benchmarking I was sort of hoping that it was
differentiating between library C code and ruby code, but it really
isn’t.
I guess that the system time must be spent in something like process
switching overhead, yes?
–
Rick DeNatale
My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
Rick DeNatale wrote:
I guess that the system time must be spent in something like process
switching overhead, yes?
Well … maybe. What OS are you running? If it’s any flavor of Linux, I
can point you at some higher-resolution tools. And remind me … what
was the code supposed to be doing?