The first style is fine as objects are passed by reference, i.e. there
are not copies made.
On Thu, 2016-09-15 at 20:15, Nathan Smith wrote:
> Hi
>
> I'm looking for some advice for some on writing methods on large (memory-wise)
> data types. Is there an overhead difference in the following two methods?
>
> type State
> hugearray1::Array{Float64, 2}
> hugearray2::Array{Float64, 2}
> ... # Many more components
> end
>
> function style1!(s::State)
> complicated_function(s.hugearray1)
> end
>
> function style2!(arr::Array{Float64, 2})
> complicated_function(arr)
> end
>
> # difference in calls:
>
> s = State(arr1, arr2, ...)
> style1!(s) # Pretty but is it slower?
> style2!(s.hugearray1) # Ugly but is it faster?
>
>
> Basically, is there an overhead in throwing the whole state datatype into a
> function even if i only manipulate one or two of the potentially large amount
> of components or should I be making functions in the second style where
> arguments are exactly of the type of the components being manipulated.
>
> Thanks!
> Nathan
>
> ps: sorry for the double post, I hit enter before I finished writing..
