C vs C++

Overview

Objectives/Goals My project#s objective was to determine the speed of C compared to C++ (programming languages). I thought that C++ would be faster, because it was written more recently. Methods/Materials I used two books for reference, Herb Schildt's C++: The Complete Reference, and Teach Yourself C++, also by Schildt. I found these the most useful books while I was teaching myself programming. I used three compilers for the C language, and three compilers for the C++ language. I also used a computer. I wrote two programs (one that did math calculations, the other printed to the screen, both repeated the task 100,000 times) in the two languages. I compiled the C++ programs in the C++ compilers, and compiled the C programs in both the C compilers and the C++ compilers. I ran my programs ten times each, and recorded the time they took to run. I used Microsoft Excel to analyze my data using averages, medians, and graphs. Results The times varied with the different compilers, but the most significant evidence is the fact that the C programs compiled in the C++ compilers, were faster than the C++ programs I compiled in the C++ compiler. On a very basic level, C is faster than C++. Conclusions/Discussion At the basic level, in it's simple, basic functions, C is faster than C++. C is faster at math and printing, but C++ has plenty of advantages. If you look at the actual programs I wrote, the C++ code is a lot simpler. There are a lot of little things that I personally believe make the programmer's life easier. There are also a lot of bigger, more complicated things like classes, which can greatly simplify a large program. They didn't affect these programs, but in a real application or game, these features could make writing the program much easier. I think that when C was upgraded to C++, speed wasn't the only consideration. More important were power and ease of use.

Competition history

• CSEF 2002 Mathematics & Software · Entry J1216

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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