[Caml-list] What is the fastest? Pattern matching or if then else

[Francois Berenger <berenger@riken.jp>]

Hello,

I always wondered what is the fastest (at least for integers):

match n with
   0 -> (* do something *)
| _ -> (* do something else *)

or

if n = 0 then
   (* do something *)
else
   (* do something else *)

Sometimes I have some code that would be more beautiful
if I was using only pattern matching rather than
pattern matching interspersed with if then else directives.

Is one significantly faster than the other?

Is it the same cost at runtime?

Thanks a lot,
F.