I got as far as this
func BenchmarkPopCountSimple(b *testing.B) {
sum := 0 // Avoid dead code elimination.
for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
sum += PopCount(0x1234567890abcdef)
}
}
I added additional benchmarks
func BenchmarkPopCountSimpleX(b *testing.B) {
sum := 0 // Does not avoid dead code elimination.
for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
sum += PopCount(0x1234567890abcdef)
}
}
var sum = 0 // Avoid dead code elimination.
func BenchmarkPopCountSimpleY(b *testing.B) {
sum = 0
for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
sum += PopCount(0x1234567890abcdef)
}
}
func BenchmarkPopCountSimpleZ(b *testing.B) {
for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
// Dead code elimination.
}
}
The results
$ go version
go version devel go1.17-3b770f2ccb Sun May 30 17:47:50 2021 +0000
linux/amd64
$ go test -bench=BenchmarkPopCountSimple
BenchmarkPopCountSimple-4 1000000000 0.3634 ns/op
BenchmarkPopCountSimpleX-4 1000000000 0.3727 ns/op
BenchmarkPopCountSimpleY-4 508559316 2.295 ns/op
BenchmarkPopCountSimpleZ-4 1000000000 0.3655 ns/op
$
It doesn't look like you have avoided dead code elimination for
BenchmarkPopCountSimple.
Peter
On Monday, May 31, 2021 at 6:29:27 PM UTC-4 Paul S. R. Chisholm wrote:
> This is not a serious problem, but it surprised me. (By the way, how can I
> post a message with code formatting?)
>
> I'd like to create table-driven benchmarks:
> https://blog.golang.org/subtests.
>
> To that end, I started with code from *The Go Programming Language*:
>
> // PopCount is based on an example from chapter 2 of THE GO PROGRAMMING
> LANGUAGE.
> // Copyright © 2016 Alan A. A. Donovan & Brian W. Kernighan.
> // License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
>
> package popcount
>
> // pc[i] is the population count of i.
> var pc [256]byte
>
> func init() {
> for i := range pc {
> pc[i] = pc[i/2] + byte(i&1)
> }
> }
>
> // PopCount returns the population count (number of set bits) of x.
> func PopCount(x uint64) int {
> return int(pc[byte(x>>(0*8))] +
> pc[byte(x>>(1*8))] +
> pc[byte(x>>(2*8))] +
> pc[byte(x>>(3*8))] +
> pc[byte(x>>(4*8))] +
> pc[byte(x>>(5*8))] +
> pc[byte(x>>(6*8))] +
> pc[byte(x>>(7*8))])
> }
>
> I then wrote a simple test:
>
> // popcount_simple_test.go
> package popcount
>
> import "testing"
>
> func BenchmarkPopCountSimple(b *testing.B) {
> sum := 0 // Avoid dead code elimination.
> for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
> sum += PopCount(0x1234567890abcdef)
> }
> }
>
> Because I was paranoid about dead code elimination, I wrote an identical
> test that calls the function many times (inside the loop to call it b.N
> times, which should make no difference if the hypothetically-still-dead
> code is being eliminated):
>
> // popcount_slow_simple_test.go
> package popcount
>
> import "testing"
>
> func BenchmarkPopCountSlowSimple(b *testing.B) {
> sum := 0 // Avoid dead code elimination.
> for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
> // Exactly as before, but call the function many times.
> for j:= 0; j < 1_000_000; j++ {
> sum += PopCount(0x1234567890abcdef)
> }
> }
> }
>
> Then I wrote an "almost simple" test that uses testing.B.Run() but is
> hardwired to call the function being benchmarked:
>
> // popcount_almost_simple_test.go
> package popcount
>
> import "testing"
>
> func BenchmarkPopCountAlmostSimple(b *testing.B) {
> b.Run("BenchmarkPopCountAlmostSimple", func(b *testing.B) {
> sum := 0 // Avoid dead code elimination.
> for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
> sum += PopCount(0x1234567890abcdef)
> }
> })
> }
>
> Finally, I wrote a "nearly-simple" test that passes arguments to Run()
> that could have come from a table:
>
> // popcount_nearly_simple.go
> package popcount
>
> import "testing"
>
> func BenchmarkPopCountNearlySimple(b *testing.B) {
> f := PopCount
> name := "PopCountNearlySimple"
> b.Run(name, func(b *testing.B) {
> sum := 0 // Avoid dead code elimination.
> for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
> sum += f(0x1234567890abcdef)
> }
> })
> }
>
> The simple and almost-simple results are nearly identical (happily, the
> slow results are not), but the nearly-simple results are an order of
> magnitude slower:
>
> $ go version
> go version go1.16.4 windows/amd64
> $ go test -cpu=1 -bench=.
> goos: windows
> goarch: amd64
> pkg: gopl.io/popcount
> cpu: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 760 @ 2.80GHz
> BenchmarkPopCountAlmostSimple/BenchmarkPopCountAlmostSimple
> 1000000000 0.6102 ns/op
> BenchmarkPopCountNearlySimple/PopCountNearlySimple
> 194925662 6.197 ns/op
> BenchmarkPopCountSimple
> 1000000000 0.5994 ns/op
> BenchmarkPopCountSlowSimple
> 1953 606194 ns/op
> PASS
> ok gopl.io/popcount 4.534s
>
> After reading this article:
>
>
> https://medium.com/a-journey-with-go/go-inlining-strategy-limitation-6b6d7fc3b1be
>
> I ran:
>
> $ go test -cpu=1 -bench=. -gcflags=-m 2>&1 | egrep 'inlining call to
> PopCount'
> .\popcount_almost_simple_test.go:9:19: inlining call to PopCount
> .\popcount_simple_test.go:8:18: inlining call to PopCount
> .\popcount_slow_simple_test.go:10:19: inlining call to PopCount
>
> That makes sense. 0.6 ns is less than a function call. The simple and
> almost-simple benchmarks can inline the call to the hardwired function, but
> the nearly-simple benchmark can't.
>
> In practice, this isn't much of a problem. Any function small enough to be
> inlined is unlikely to be a performance bottleneck. If it ever is, a
> non-table-driven benchmark can still measure it.
>
> Hope this helps. --PSRC
>
> P.S.: Out of curiosity, how can I post a message with fancy code examples
> like this one?
> https://groups.google.com/g/golang-nuts/c/5DgtH2Alt_I/m/hlsqdRSGAgAJ
>
>
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