Which is better option to use for dividing an integer number by 2?

Question

Which of the following techniques is the best option for dividing an integer by 2 and why?Technique 1: x = x >> 1;Technique 2: x = x / 2;Here `x` is an integer.

Answer 1

In assembler, the fastest method is to shift. It makes no memory reference where dividing by 2 does. Most modern C++ compilers would compile both versions into a simple load - shift - store instruction sequence so I doubt it matters. to find out for sure, write a simple program and look at the assembler it generates.