post increment vs pre increment - Javascript Optimization

Question

I was browsing Google Code when I chanced upon this project called JSpeed - optimization for Javascript.

I noticed one of the optimization was to change i++ to ++i in for loop statements.

Before Optimization

for (i=0;i<1;i++) {}

for (var i = 0, j = 0; i < 1000000; i++, j++) {
    if (i == 4) {
        var tmp = i / 2;
    }

    if ((i % 2) == 0) {
        var tmp = i / 2;
        i++;
    }
}
var arr = new Array(1000000);
for (i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {}

After optimization

for(var i=0;i<1;++i){}
for(var i=0,j=0;i<1000000;++i,++j){if(i==4){var tmp=i>>1;}
if((i&1)==0){var tmp=i>>1;i++;}}
var arr=new Array(1000000);for(var i=0,arr_len=arr.length;i<arr_len;++i){}

I know what pre and post increments do, but any idea how does this speeds the code up?

Answer 1

This is what I read and could answer your question: "preincrement (++i) adds one to the value of i, then returns i; in contrast, i++ returns i then adds one to it, which in theory results in the creation of a temporary variable storing the value of i before the increment operation was applied".