It's impossible to give a general answer. You could have a tight loop in a performance critical part of your code, where optimising out the NULL check removes (

It's impossible to give a general answer. You could have a tight loop in a performance critical part of your code, where optimising out the NULL check removes (say) 25% of the loop code. Or, the check might be negligible. It depends upon the code. That's why IMO people saying that the compiler shouldn't bother with these 'excessive' optimisations are wrong. It might be worthless for them and their programs, but might be valuable for others. Don't force your priorities upon other people.