@coded_artist @LukeAlmighty @SuperDicq
the conclusion from all of that is:
1. Instead of trying to be clever, try to write code in such a way that it's easy to understand what you're trying to do - chances are the compiler will be able to make sense of that and apply optimizations much better than you could by hand.
2. If in doubt, look at what instructions the compiler generates, eg. with godbolt: https://godbolt.org/z/oW88b77eW
I draw, code, and make memes sometimes.