C: What is the difference between ++i and i++?

Question

In C, what is the difference between using ++i and i++, and which should be used in the incrementation block of a for loop?

Answer 1

The reason ++i can be slightly faster than i++ is that i++ can require a local copy of the value of i before it gets incremented, while ++i never does. In some cases, some compilers will optimize it away if possible... but it's not always possible, and not all compilers do this.

I try not to rely too much on compilers optimizations, so I'd follow Ryan Fox's advice: when I can use both, I use ++i.