which is more efficient?

Say i have 100 characters and i'm doing an finite state machine for controling their behaviours, which would be more efficient?

Monitoring all chars in one big loop and checking all states in one go like this

foreach char

state = A, do action

state = B, do action

state = C, do action

or

picking the chars by states and doing small loops to control each one like this

state = A

foreach char, do action

state = B

foreach char, do action

state = C

foreach char, do action

Thanks.

If there is no total 'idle' state, it does not matter.

I mean ... if each object for sure has state A, B, or C, needing actions for each state.

If you really want to squeeze out the last possible iteration, then use Browser object to log an (local variable) iteration counter.

But, watch the logic. The 'foreach char' is not always needed, when things are not personal.

Example.

foreach char < ------- unnecessary

state = A (is dead)

____destroy

state = A (is dead)

foreach char < ------- unnecessary

__destroy

Profile it with wallclocktime. Basically you can do this to measure how long some events take. Then you can try both ways and compare it.

global number starttime=0

every tick

--- set starttime to wallclocktime

// events to profile

--- set text to wallclocktime-starttime

One side tip: you don't need the "for each" in any of the two alternatives. C2 does a hidden "for each" if you just use the condition state.

In other words, both alternatives (without the "For each" event") are the same.