What is the term for this type of refactoring

Question

I am sure there is a term for the following bit of refactoring, but I can't remember it and my Google-fu is failing me!

The refactor moves if statements to where they are going to have most impact, for example changing this

$test = someFunctionThatReturnsABool();
for($x = 0; $x < 10000; $x++) {
    if ($test) { 
        echo $x; 
    }
}

To this

$test = someFunctionThatReturnsABool();
if ($test) {
    for($x = 0; $x < 10000; $x++) {
        echo $x; 
    }
}

Answer 1

This is loop-invariant code motion. A good compiler should do it on its own.

...loop-invariant code consists of statements or expressions (in an imperative programming language) which can be moved outside the body of a loop without affecting the semantics of the program. Loop-invariant code motion (also called hoisting or scalar promotion) is a compiler optimization which performs this movement automatically...

If we consider the following code sample, two optimizations can be easily applied.

for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
    x = y + z;
    a[i] = 6 * i + x * x;
}

The calculation x = y + z and x * x can be moved outside the loop since within they are loop invariant — they do not change over the iterations of the loop— so the optimized code will be something like this:

x = y + z;
t1 = x * x;
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
    a[i] = 6 * i + t1;
}

This code can be optimized further...

Answer 2

This is also called hoisting or scalar promotion. See here:

Hoisting means that you have pulled some operation out of a loop because the loop itself does not affect the result of the operation. In your case, you are hoisting the conditional test out of the while loop.

Re-ordering means changing the sequence of instructions in a way that does not affect the result. Typically this would be adjacent instructions with no data dependencies, e.g. it does not matter which order you perform the following two statements:

int a = x;
int b = y;

Answer 3

Looks like a variant of Remove Control Flag (pp 245 of Fowler's Refactoring)

A PHP example can be found on DZone.

Answer 4

I don't think such a refactoring exists.

So, it would be hard to find it amongst ''lists of refactorings''.

I'd class that example as an optimisation not a refactoring.

Refactoring, to me, is changing the code to improve its understandability without affecting its behaviour.

Optimisation, to me, is changing the code to improve performance.

Since optimised code tends to be less easy to understand. The two practices tend to work against each other.