Benefits of using short-circuit evaluation

Question

boolean a = false, b = true;
if ( a && b ) { ... };

In most languages, b will not get evaluated because a is fals

Answer 1

i've only heard of it as short circuit. in a pipeline doesnt the next op that goes in depend on the outcome of the if statement? if that is the case this would more optimized so it wouldnt have to test two values every time.