C Programming: difference between ++i and i=i+1 from an assembler point of view?

Question

This was an interview question. I said they were the same, but this was adjudged an incorrect response. From the assembler point of view, is there any imaginable difference? I h

Answer 1

You are probably right. A naive compiler might do:

++i to inc [ax]

and

i = i + 1 to add [ax], 1

but any half sensible compiler will just optimize adding 1 to the first version.

This all assumes the relevant architecture has inc and add instructions (like x86 does).