Faster alternative to nested loops?

Question

I have a need to create a list of combinations of numbers. The numbers are quite small so I can use byte rather than int. However it requires many

Answer 1

Do you need the result to be an array of arrays? With the current setup the length of the inner arrays is fixed and could be replaced with structs. This would allow the entire thing to be reserved as one continuous block of memory and provides easier access to the elements (not sure how you use this thing lateron).

The approach below is much faster (41ms vs 1071ms for the original on my box):

struct element {
    public byte a;
    public byte b;
    public byte c;
    public byte d;
    public byte e;
    public byte f;
    public byte g;
    public byte h;
    public byte i;
    public byte j;
    public byte k;
    public byte l;
    public byte m;
}

element[] WithStruct() {
    var t = new element[3981312];
    int z = 0;
    for (byte a = 0; a < 2; a++)
    for (byte b = 0; b < 3; b++)
    for (byte c = 0; c < 4; c++)
    for (byte d = 0; d < 3; d++)
    for (byte e = 0; e < 4; e++)
    for (byte f = 0; f < 3; f++)
    for (byte g = 0; g < 3; g++)
    for (byte h = 0; h < 4; h++)
    for (byte i = 0; i < 2; i++)
    for (byte j = 0; j < 4; j++)
    for (byte k = 0; k < 4; k++)
    for (byte l = 0; l < 3; l++)
    for (byte m = 0; m < 4; m++)
    {
        t[z].a = a;
        t[z].b = b;
        t[z].c = c;
        t[z].d = d;
        t[z].e = e;
        t[z].f = f;
        t[z].g = g;
        t[z].h = h;
        t[z].i = i;
        t[z].j = j;
        t[z].k = k;
        t[z].l = l;
        t[z].m = m;
        z++;
    }
    return t;
}