Bitwise operators are faster. Avoid these micro-optimizations

TL;DR: Don't use bitwise operators unless your business model is bitwise logic.

Problems

• Readability

• Clevereness

• Premature Optimization

• Maintainability

• Bijection Violation

Solutions

1. Improve readability

Context

Some clever programmers solve problems we don't have.

We should optimize code based on evidence and use the scientific method.

We should benchmark only if necessary and improve code only if really necessary and bear the cost of changeability and maintainability.

Sample Code

Wrong

const nowInSeconds = ~~(Date.now() / 1000)

Right

const nowInSeconds = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)

Detection

[X] Semi-Automatic

We can tell our linters to warn us and manually check if it is worth the change.

Exceptions

• Real-time and mission-critical software.

Tags

• Premature Optimization

Conclusion

If we find this code in a pull request or code review, we need to understand the reasons. If they are not justified, we should do a rollback and change it to a normal logic.

Relations

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More Info

Tilde Operator ~~

Javascript BitWise Operators

Disclaimer

Code Smells are just my opinion.

Credits

Photo by Frdric Barriol on Unsplash

Original Article Here.

Watch the little things; a small leak will sink a great ship.

Benjamin Franklin

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This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.

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