Crate branches

Branches

branches provides branch hinting prediction and control functions for optimization of algorithms, using built-in Rust features on stable and core::intrinsics on nightly.

Usage

To use branches, add the following to your Cargo.toml file:

[dependencies]
branches = "0.1"

Functions

The following functions are provided by branches:

• likely(b: bool) -> bool: Returns the input value but provides hints for the compiler that the statement is likely to be true.
• unlikely(b: bool) -> bool: Returns the input value but provides hints for the compiler that the statement is unlikely to be true.
• assume(b: bool): Assumes that the input condition is always true and causes undefined behavior if it is not. On stable Rust, this function uses core::hint::unreachable_unchecked() to achieve the same effect.
• abort(): Aborts the execution of the process immediately and without any cleanup.

Here’s an example of how you can use likely to optimize a function:

use branches::likely;

pub fn factorial(n: usize) -> usize {
    if likely(n > 1) {
        n * factorial(n - 1)
    } else {
        1
    }
}

By correctly using the functions provided by branches, you can achieve a 10-20% improvement in the performance of your algorithms.

License

branches is licensed under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more information.

Functions

• abort
  Aborts the execution of the process immediately and without any cleanup.
• assume^⚠
  Informs the optimizer that a condition is always true.
• likely
  Hints to the compiler that the branch condition is likely to be true. Returns the value passed to it.
• unlikely
  Hints to the compiler that the branch condition is unlikely to be true. Returns the value passed to it.