C++: Set bool value only if not set

Question

I have code in my C++ application that generally does this:

bool myFlag = false;
while (/*some finite condition unrelated to myFlag*/) {
    if (...) {
               


        

Answer 1

This question gave me headache too so i simply tested it myself with the following code (C#):

        System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch time = new System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch();
        int i = 0;
        int j = 1;

        time.Start();
        if (i != 0)
            i = 0;
        time.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine("compare + set - {0} ticks", time.ElapsedTicks);

        time.Reset();
        time.Start();
        if (j != 0)
            j = 0;
        time.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine("compare - {0} ticks", time.ElapsedTicks);


        time.Reset();
        time.Start();
        i = 0;
        time.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine("set - {0} ticks", time.ElapsedTicks);

        Console.ReadLine();

result:

compare + set - 1 ticks

compare - 1 ticks

set - 0 ticks

while the time, used to set the value surely isn't zero, it shows that even a single query needed more time than just setting the variable.