Checking if a given group of integers contains a 0 value - c++

Question

Suppose I have a bunch of integers (10~20) and need to check if any of them equals 0. What's the most efficient way to do it? I don't want to evaluate a giant if(a=0 || b=0 || c=0 ||...) statement. I thought of if(abc... = 0) but if I remember correctly multiplication isn't a very quick process. Are there any other tricks, such as bit wise operations that would work? I'm trying to think as low level as possible to make this super efficient.

Answer 1

I'm pretty sure the fastest and clearest way to do this is with an explicit test:
int has_zero = !a || !b || !c || !d || !e ...;
Because the || and && are short-circuiting operators in C, evaluation stops as soon as the final result is known, so if (for instance) the b variable is zero, that satisfies the expression as true and stops evaluating the rest.
#AbhayAravinda suggested that !(a && b && c && d ...) might be more efficient, but I don't think so; because this is not so much doing an explicit not operation, but a low-level test-against-zero, this is a really easy test for pretty much any architecture to do reliably. I did a quick look at optimized assembler for both versions and there was no clear winner for performance, but I think the first version is clearer.
If every single cycle matters, then check both versions on your platform, but on my 64-bit Intel system, both gcc and clang do in fact generate the same assembly for both versions (with optimizations turned on).
Simple test code:
int a, b, c, d, e, f;
int test_or()
{
return !a || !b || !c || !d || !e || !f;
}
int test_and()
{
return ! (a && b && c && d && e && f);
}
int main()
{
return test_or() | test_and();
}
Compile this with gcc -S -O testfile.c and look at the resulting .s file.

Answer 2

Test each one in turn. Exploit the short-circuiting property of ||; place the variables in descending order of the probability of each being zero:
if (!a/*most likely to be zero*/ || !b || ...){
// one of them is zero
}

Answer 3

Most people give an answer like:
!a || !b || ...
(where a is the most probable one of being zero)
The idea is that, in case a is zero, then the rest of the sequence is not evaluated (because of not being necessary), which is a kind of optimisation, performed by the compiler.
This turns the question into: does your compiler perform this optimisation or not (and in case of "possibly yes", what are the parameters in order to enforce this)?
Can you tell us which compiler (version) you're working with? This might enable us verifying this.

Answer 4

You may look at the assembler output.
The !a || !b || !c || !d || !e || !f will give you a bunch of cmp and je statements. One pair for each variable. Because of boolean short cut evaluation, it may run very fast. Or not.
The maybe better and deterministic solution is using the bitwise AND operator. If one operand is 0, then the result will be 0. So someting like:
if (a & b & c & d & e & f & g & h & i & j & k)
will result in one mov and then and statements for each variable.
So, if the variable that is 0 is in the 2nd half of the if statement, then the bitweise AND will be faster.