Incrementing in C++ - When to use x++ or ++x?

Solution 1:

It's not a question of preference, but of logic.

x++ increments the value of variable x after processing the current statement.

++x increments the value of variable x before processing the current statement.

So just decide on the logic you write.

x += ++i will increment i and add i+1 to x. x += i++ will add i to x, then increment i.

Solution 2:

Scott Meyers tells you to prefer prefix except on those occasions where logic would dictate that postfix is appropriate.

"More Effective C++" item #6 - that's sufficient authority for me.

For those who don't own the book, here are the pertinent quotes. From page 32:

From your days as a C programmer, you may recall that the prefix form of the increment operator is sometimes called "increment and fetch", while the postfix form is often known as "fetch and increment." The two phrases are important to remember, because they all but act as formal specifications...

And on page 34:

If you're the kind who worries about efficiency, you probably broke into a sweat when you first saw the postfix increment function. That function has to create a temporary object for its return value and the implementation above also creates an explicit temporary object that has to be constructed and destructed. The prefix increment function has no such temporaries...

Solution 3:

From cppreference when incrementing iterators:

You should prefer pre-increment operator (++iter) to post-increment operator (iter++) if you are not going to use the old value. Post-increment is generally implemented as follows:

   Iter operator++(int)   {
     Iter tmp(*this); // store the old value in a temporary object
     ++*this;         // call pre-increment
     return tmp;      // return the old value   }

Obviously, it's less efficient than pre-increment.

Pre-increment does not generate the temporary object. This can make a significant difference if your object is expensive to create.

Solution 4:

I just want to notice that the geneated code is offen the same if you use pre/post incrementation where the semantic (of pre/post) doesn't matter.

example:

pre.cpp:

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
  int i = 13;
  i++;
  for (; i < 42; i++)
    {
      std::cout << i << std::endl;
    }
}

post.cpp:

#include <iostream>

int main()
{

  int i = 13;
  ++i;
  for (; i < 42; ++i)
    {
      std::cout << i << std::endl;
    }
}

_

$> g++ -S pre.cpp
$> g++ -S post.cpp
$> diff pre.s post.s   
1c1
<   .file   "pre.cpp"
---
>   .file   "post.cpp"