Faster access to multi-dimensional arrays...

[Kale]

Code updated for 5.20+

I've been reading up on game programming recently and have come across a nice little tip when using large multi-dimensional arrays.

When reading or writing values to such arrays and you need to optimise your code for maximum speed, you must make sure you write and read in 'Row Order' using Purebasic. This is because the arrays are stored in memory with the right most index's elements next to each other.

Check out this code:

Code: Select all

#ELEMENTS = 250
Global Dim TestData.f(#ELEMENTS, #ELEMENTS, #ELEMENTS)

StartTime = ElapsedMilliseconds()

;Column Ordered
For z = 0 To #ELEMENTS
   For y = 0 To #ELEMENTS
      For x = 0 To #ELEMENTS
         TestData(x, y, z) = 0.0
      Next x
   Next y
Next z

ColumnTime = ElapsedMilliseconds() - StartTime
StartTime = ElapsedMilliseconds()

;Row Ordered
For x = 0 To #ELEMENTS
   For y = 0 To #ELEMENTS
      For z = 0 To #ELEMENTS
         TestData(x, y, z) = 0.0
      Next z
   Next y
Next x

RowTime = ElapsedMilliseconds() - StartTime

MessageRequester("Timings", "Column Ordered: " + Str(ColumnTime) + " ms" + #LF$ + "Row Ordered: " + Str(RowTime) + " ms" + #LF$ + "Delta: " + Str(ColumnTime - RowTime))

You can see that when run, there is a big time difference writing using column ordered and row ordered access. I've usually used row access anyway in my programs but it's nice to know what speed is gained rather than using column access.

This tip only applies to Purebasic, other languages may differ.

[KarLKoX]

Very nice tips

[Flype]

surely, good to know

[Joakim Christiansen]

That's usually how I do it, but I didn't know that it's faster.
Thank you for this tip it's always good to know how you can make things fastest possible.

[inc.]

Imho cause an Array is row ordered in memory so thats why row based acess makes accessing elements faster. *just imho!*

I recognised that when doing parsing pixels in a Bitmap-array.
Normally the coordinates in pictures are seen as x,y but using y,x in the array parsing routine made it working properly.