[SOLVED] Why is C slower than Java?

[usernamer]

I was always told how C is faster than Java, so I decided to write a few very basic programs to see how much slower it is (if at all) at using basic commands like if, for etc. I compiled my code, and Java was significantly faster (although, as always takes longer to compile). Does Java have some sort of extra stuff built into its for loop so that it can do this more efficiently or something?

Here's my code...

public class speed {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
         int count;
         for( count = 0; count <= 1000000000; count++ ) {

         }
         System.out.print( "\n" +count+ "\n" );
     }
}

and for C...

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
         int count;
         for( count = 0; count <= 1000000000; count++ ) {
    
         }
         printf( "\n%d\n" ,count );

         return 0;
}

Also, does anyone know how to indent your code here? (Since I tried, but it ignores the spaces at the start of each line when you post).

Cheers.

[SledgeHammer_999]

Probably the printf slows down the output which makes the program to execute slower.

Put your code inside [ code][ /code] tags or [ php][/ php] tags next time.

[usernamer]

Cheers for the input, but I doubt it since the printf is outside the for loop, and the C program once compiled takes around 3 seconds to print, and the java one takes around 1/10th of a second

[amingv]

javac has all optimizations turned on by default whereas gcc doesn't. This means java isn't actually running the loop at all (i.e. it ignores the empty loop).

If you compile your C program like this:

gcc -O3 -o speed speed.c # -O3 enables all optimizations

Then it just blows the java program out of the water*

Either that or give the programs something nontrivial to do while they're inside of the loop so that they don't just skip it (for instance, output the value of count)

You can look here for more info on gcc optimization flags: http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Optimize-Options.html

*To be fair: java has some additional overhead because it has to load the jvm, for this particular case I expect the speed for both programs should be pretty close. This isn't much of a speed test, really

[usernamer]

Thanks, I suspected it could be something roughly like that... I did originally have more 0's, but the java compiler complained at me

[usernamer]

I did try to output the value of count in the for loop as well before (and again just now with optimisations enabled), and java was still around a second quicker.

[SledgeHammer_999]

Cheers for the input, but I doubt it since the printf is outside the for loop, and the C program once compiled takes around 3 seconds to print, and the java one takes around 1/10th of a second

Well, I missed that since you hadn't used code tags... (hint php tags highlight syntax regardless of programming language used)

[trent.josephsen]

I for one refuse to use php tags because marking up non-php code with "PHP" violates the structure of the markup. Like using <blockquote> to indent something that's not a quote. I'd use 'em if they were called something different. (Code tags are good though.)

[r-senior]

Java usually benchmarks around 110-120% of the execution time of C and C++ for equivalent code.

I've got some Eratosthenes sieve programs somewhere that are consistent with this. Exact same algorithm in C, C++, Java, Pascal and Python. Still not a perfect benchmark but more realistic than an empty loop. I'll post them later if you want to play with them.

Speed isn't everything of course; my Python sieve stumbles in around 20-30 times the execution time of C but it's still a great language and quick enough for most general purpose stuff. A GTK+ program written in Python isn't noticeably sluggish compared to one written in C for example.

[woxuxow]

C is so faster than java
java is the slowest programming language i have ever wrote program in