math/big: fast path for Cmp if same

[TuomLarsen]

I noticed that math/big.Int Cmp method does not have a fast path for the case if x and y are the same. Wouldn't it be beneficial to have there something along the lines:

if x == y {
    r = 0
    return
}

Mul seems to do similar.

Same applies for big.Rat and big.Float.

[ALTree]

Note that Mul has that check because if the two numbers are the same you can do squaring, which is faster than a fully general multiplication. This is a fast-path that cannot be easily implemented by the caller since a fast squaring routine in not trivial to write. On the other hand, it's easy to avoid an Int.Cmp call when the pointers are the same, and you can do that in user code.

[josharian]

Seems reasonable, if it fires. You might try putting it in, adding some logging when it does/doesn’t fire, and then running make.bash. If it fires a non-trivial percentage of times it definitely seems worthwhile.

[rsc]

Spoke to @griesemer; go ahead, for Go 1.14.

[IllyaYalovyy]

Is anyone working on it? I'm looking to start contributing, and need an easy task for a warmup.

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/178957 mentions this issue: math/big: fast path for Cmp if same