encoding/base64: make encoding/base64.init() smaller and faster

[bronze1man]

What version of Go are you using (go version)?

go version go1.9 darwin/amd64

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

yes

What operating system and processor architecture are you using (go env)?

GOARCH="amd64"
GOBIN=""
GOEXE=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="darwin"
GOOS="darwin"
GOPATH="/Users/a/go"
GORACE=""
GOROOT="/usr/local/go"
GOTOOLDIR="/usr/local/go/pkg/tool/darwin_amd64"
GCCGO="gccgo"
CC="clang"
GOGCCFLAGS="-fPIC -m64 -pthread -fno-caret-diagnostics -Qunused-arguments -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=/var/folders/m9/qtbxkp6s3p96fk54rln7qhj80000gp/T/go-build906670350=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches -fno-common"
CXX="clang++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"
CGO_CFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_CPPFLAGS=""
CGO_CXXFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_FFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_LDFLAGS="-g -O2"
PKG_CONFIG="pkg-config"

What did you do?

review code from https://github.com/golang/go/blob/master/src/encoding/base64/base64.go#L96

What did you expect to see?

var StdEncoding = Encoding{....}

What did you see instead?

var StdEncoding = NewEncoding(encodeStd)

I think we can write a simple program to generate that Encoding golang code to Encoding{....} to make encoding/base64.init() smaller and faster.
In current golang compile NewEncoding(encodeStd) in global variable will compile code into encoding/base64.init().
Encoding{....} in global variable will compile that data to some place.

[ghost]

Not sure it makes much sense. The initialization only happens once at the program start, doesn't it?

[bronze1man]

The initialization only happens once at the program start, doesn't it?

There is two advantages:

• Current compiler can skip not referenced "static" global variable to make binary smaller. But It will include all init function. So the var URLEncoding make not put into binary if you only use base64.StdEncoding when we make all those variable "static".
• The init time and init memory cost is decreased indeed.It will make golang more runnable on limited memory envirment like ios network extension (only allow use 10MB memory totally).

[leighmcculloch]

Here's a program that prints out what you'd need to hardcode StdEncoding to.

package main

import (
	"encoding/base64"
	"fmt"
)

func main() {
	fmt.Printf("%#v\n", base64.StdEncoding)
}

https://play.golang.org/p/xuzDMMAydd

It prints out:

&base64.Encoding{
	encode:[64]uint8{0x41, 0x42, 0x43, 0x44, 0x45, 0x46, 0x47, 0x48, 0x49, 0x4a, 0x4b, 0x4c, 0x4d, 0x4e, 0x4f, 0x50, 0x51, 0x52, 0x53, 0x54, 0x55, 0x56, 0x57, 0x58, 0x59, 0x5a, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63, 0x64, 0x65, 0x66, 0x67, 0x68, 0x69, 0x6a, 0x6b, 0x6c, 0x6d, 0x6e, 0x6f, 0x70, 0x71, 0x72, 0x73, 0x74, 0x75, 0x76, 0x77, 0x78, 0x79, 0x7a, 0x30, 0x31, 0x32, 0x33, 0x34, 0x35, 0x36, 0x37, 0x38, 0x39, 0x2b, 0x2f},
	decodeMap:[256]uint8{0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x3e, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x3f, 0x34, 0x35, 0x36, 0x37, 0x38, 0x39, 0x3a, 0x3b, 0x3c, 0x3d, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x0, 0x1, 0x2, 0x3, 0x4, 0x5, 0x6, 0x7, 0x8, 0x9, 0xa, 0xb, 0xc, 0xd, 0xe, 0xf, 0x10, 0x11, 0x12, 0x13, 0x14, 0x15, 0x16, 0x17, 0x18, 0x19, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x1a, 0x1b, 0x1c, 0x1d, 0x1e, 0x1f, 0x20, 0x21, 0x22, 0x23, 0x24, 0x25, 0x26, 0x27, 0x28, 0x29, 0x2a, 0x2b, 0x2c, 0x2d, 0x2e, 0x2f, 0x30, 0x31, 0x32, 0x33, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff},
	padChar:61,
	strict:false,
}

But this ☝️ is significantly harder to read than the original 👇 .

const encodeStd = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/"
var StdEncoding = NewEncoding(encodeStd)

[ALTree]

Are the speed and/or size gains of such a change big enough to justify a substantial loss of readability?

[leighmcculloch]

I don't think the speed lost with the existing code justifies making the code harder to read.

Benchmark code

package base64

import "testing"

type Encoding struct {
	encode    [64]byte
	decodeMap [256]byte
	padChar   rune
	strict    bool
}

const StdPadding rune = '='
const encodeStd = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/"

func NewEncoding(encoder string) *Encoding {
	if len(encoder) != 64 {
		panic("encoding alphabet is not 64-bytes long")
	}
	for i := 0; i < len(encoder); i++ {
		if encoder[i] == '\n' || encoder[i] == '\r' {
			panic("encoding alphabet contains newline character")
		}
	}

	e := new(Encoding)
	e.padChar = StdPadding
	copy(e.encode[:], encoder)

	for i := 0; i < len(e.decodeMap); i++ {
		e.decodeMap[i] = 0xFF
	}
	for i := 0; i < len(encoder); i++ {
		e.decodeMap[encoder[i]] = byte(i)
	}
	return e
}

func Hardcoded() *Encoding {
	return &Encoding{
		encode:    [64]uint8{0x41, 0x42, 0x43, 0x44, 0x45, 0x46, 0x47, 0x48, 0x49, 0x4a, 0x4b, 0x4c, 0x4d, 0x4e, 0x4f, 0x50, 0x51, 0x52, 0x53, 0x54, 0x55, 0x56, 0x57, 0x58, 0x59, 0x5a, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63, 0x64, 0x65, 0x66, 0x67, 0x68, 0x69, 0x6a, 0x6b, 0x6c, 0x6d, 0x6e, 0x6f, 0x70, 0x71, 0x72, 0x73, 0x74, 0x75, 0x76, 0x77, 0x78, 0x79, 0x7a, 0x30, 0x31, 0x32, 0x33, 0x34, 0x35, 0x36, 0x37, 0x38, 0x39, 0x2b, 0x2f},
		decodeMap: [256]uint8{0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x3e, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x3f, 0x34, 0x35, 0x36, 0x37, 0x38, 0x39, 0x3a, 0x3b, 0x3c, 0x3d, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x0, 0x1, 0x2, 0x3, 0x4, 0x5, 0x6, 0x7, 0x8, 0x9, 0xa, 0xb, 0xc, 0xd, 0xe, 0xf, 0x10, 0x11, 0x12, 0x13, 0x14, 0x15, 0x16, 0x17, 0x18, 0x19, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x1a, 0x1b, 0x1c, 0x1d, 0x1e, 0x1f, 0x20, 0x21, 0x22, 0x23, 0x24, 0x25, 0x26, 0x27, 0x28, 0x29, 0x2a, 0x2b, 0x2c, 0x2d, 0x2e, 0x2f, 0x30, 0x31, 0x32, 0x33, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff},
		padChar:   61,
		strict:    false,
	}
}

func BenchmarkNewEncoding(b *testing.B) {
	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
		NewEncoding(encodeStd)
	}
}

func BenchmarkHardcoded(b *testing.B) {
	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
		Hardcoded()
	}
}

Benchmark results

$ go test -bench=. -benchmem
goos: linux
goarch: amd64
BenchmarkNewEncoding-2           3000000               552 ns/op             352 B/op          1 allocs/op
BenchmarkHardcoded-2            10000000               186 ns/op             352 B/op          1 allocs/op

[bronze1man]

It only can save the first 552 ns. Thanks for your benchmark.
It is my bad that I do not do benchmark for performance before submitting this issue.
Looks like such small init performance increasing is not that much useful.It may help if such data is 1MB or bigger in size.
Following code will make compile time longer (tested from bigger size data, this one maybe 1ms?) and save the almost all the init time.(no init function from current compiler)

var StdEncoding = &base64.Encoding{
	encode:[64]uint8{0x41, 0x42, 0x43, 0x44, 0x45, 0x46, 0x47, 0x48, 0x49, 0x4a, 0x4b, 0x4c, 0x4d, 0x4e, 0x4f, 0x50, 0x51, 0x52, 0x53, 0x54, 0x55, 0x56, 0x57, 0x58, 0x59, 0x5a, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63, 0x64, 0x65, 0x66, 0x67, 0x68, 0x69, 0x6a, 0x6b, 0x6c, 0x6d, 0x6e, 0x6f, 0x70, 0x71, 0x72, 0x73, 0x74, 0x75, 0x76, 0x77, 0x78, 0x79, 0x7a, 0x30, 0x31, 0x32, 0x33, 0x34, 0x35, 0x36, 0x37, 0x38, 0x39, 0x2b, 0x2f},
	decodeMap:[256]uint8{0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x3e, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x3f, 0x34, 0x35, 0x36, 0x37, 0x38, 0x39, 0x3a, 0x3b, 0x3c, 0x3d, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x0, 0x1, 0x2, 0x3, 0x4, 0x5, 0x6, 0x7, 0x8, 0x9, 0xa, 0xb, 0xc, 0xd, 0xe, 0xf, 0x10, 0x11, 0x12, 0x13, 0x14, 0x15, 0x16, 0x17, 0x18, 0x19, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x1a, 0x1b, 0x1c, 0x1d, 0x1e, 0x1f, 0x20, 0x21, 0x22, 0x23, 0x24, 0x25, 0x26, 0x27, 0x28, 0x29, 0x2a, 0x2b, 0x2c, 0x2d, 0x2e, 0x2f, 0x30, 0x31, 0x32, 0x33, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff},
	padChar:61,
	strict:false,
}

I think it is not worth the loss of readability unless those code is generated by other code, and we do not need to see that generated code again.

your Benchmark of Hardcoded code is misleading, there is no alloc, and do not run any code, if you just put that static data as a global variable.But your Benchmark of Hardcoded code have alloc and memory copy. I have analysis the binary that looks like this and generated by current compile .

I used to compile 100MB generated code, it compile slow(10s), and run init fast (almost as fast as no such code)

Another option is to change the compile make it can convert that init code to static data automaticly. But the compiler changing itself also cost a lot effect, but also gain little benefit.

This kind of size gains (maybe big if you try make everywhere use less init function)may help some projects(gopherjs) that binary size has big impacts.

[leighmcculloch]

your Benchmark of Hardcoded code is misleading, there is no alloc, and do not run any code, if you just put that static data as a global variable

Rerunning the benchmark above for comparison with the new benchmark below:

Benchmark code

package base64

import "testing"

type Encoding struct {
	encode    [64]byte
	decodeMap [256]byte
	padChar   rune
	strict    bool
}

const StdPadding rune = '='
const encodeStd = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/"

func NewEncoding(encoder string) *Encoding {
	if len(encoder) != 64 {
		panic("encoding alphabet is not 64-bytes long")
	}
	for i := 0; i < len(encoder); i++ {
		if encoder[i] == '\n' || encoder[i] == '\r' {
			panic("encoding alphabet contains newline character")
		}
	}

	e := new(Encoding)
	e.padChar = StdPadding
	copy(e.encode[:], encoder)

	for i := 0; i < len(e.decodeMap); i++ {
		e.decodeMap[i] = 0xFF
	}
	for i := 0; i < len(encoder); i++ {
		e.decodeMap[encoder[i]] = byte(i)
	}
	return e
}

func Hardcoded() *Encoding {
	return &Encoding{
		encode:    [64]uint8{0x41, 0x42, 0x43, 0x44, 0x45, 0x46, 0x47, 0x48, 0x49, 0x4a, 0x4b, 0x4c, 0x4d, 0x4e, 0x4f, 0x50, 0x51, 0x52, 0x53, 0x54, 0x55, 0x56, 0x57, 0x58, 0x59, 0x5a, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63, 0x64, 0x65, 0x66, 0x67, 0x68, 0x69, 0x6a, 0x6b, 0x6c, 0x6d, 0x6e, 0x6f, 0x70, 0x71, 0x72, 0x73, 0x74, 0x75, 0x76, 0x77, 0x78, 0x79, 0x7a, 0x30, 0x31, 0x32, 0x33, 0x34, 0x35, 0x36, 0x37, 0x38, 0x39, 0x2b, 0x2f},
		decodeMap: [256]uint8{0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x3e, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x3f, 0x34, 0x35, 0x36, 0x37, 0x38, 0x39, 0x3a, 0x3b, 0x3c, 0x3d, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x0, 0x1, 0x2, 0x3, 0x4, 0x5, 0x6, 0x7, 0x8, 0x9, 0xa, 0xb, 0xc, 0xd, 0xe, 0xf, 0x10, 0x11, 0x12, 0x13, 0x14, 0x15, 0x16, 0x17, 0x18, 0x19, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x1a, 0x1b, 0x1c, 0x1d, 0x1e, 0x1f, 0x20, 0x21, 0x22, 0x23, 0x24, 0x25, 0x26, 0x27, 0x28, 0x29, 0x2a, 0x2b, 0x2c, 0x2d, 0x2e, 0x2f, 0x30, 0x31, 0x32, 0x33, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff},
		padChar:   61,
		strict:    false,
	}
}

func BenchmarkNewEncoding(b *testing.B) {
	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
		NewEncoding(encodeStd)
	}
}

func BenchmarkHardcoded(b *testing.B) {
	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
		Hardcoded()
	}
}

Benchmark results

$ go test -bench=. -benchmem
goos: linux
goarch: amd64
BenchmarkNewEncoding-4           5000000               231 ns/op             352 B/op          1 allocs/op
BenchmarkHardcoded-4            20000000                73.4 ns/op           352 B/op          1 allocs/op

Rerunning the benchmark but with the hardcoded encoding defined as a global variable:

Benchmark code

package base64

import "testing"

type Encoding struct {
	encode    [64]byte
	decodeMap [256]byte
	padChar   rune
	strict    bool
}

const StdPadding rune = '='
const encodeStd = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/"

func NewEncoding(encoder string) *Encoding {
	if len(encoder) != 64 {
		panic("encoding alphabet is not 64-bytes long")
	}
	for i := 0; i < len(encoder); i++ {
		if encoder[i] == '\n' || encoder[i] == '\r' {
			panic("encoding alphabet contains newline character")
		}
	}

	e := new(Encoding)
	e.padChar = StdPadding
	copy(e.encode[:], encoder)

	for i := 0; i < len(e.decodeMap); i++ {
		e.decodeMap[i] = 0xFF
	}
	for i := 0; i < len(encoder); i++ {
		e.decodeMap[encoder[i]] = byte(i)
	}
	return e
}

var encodeStdHardcoded = &Encoding{
	encode:    [64]uint8{0x41, 0x42, 0x43, 0x44, 0x45, 0x46, 0x47, 0x48, 0x49, 0x4a, 0x4b, 0x4c, 0x4d, 0x4e, 0x4f, 0x50, 0x51, 0x52, 0x53, 0x54, 0x55, 0x56, 0x57, 0x58, 0x59, 0x5a, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63, 0x64, 0x65, 0x66, 0x67, 0x68, 0x69, 0x6a, 0x6b, 0x6c, 0x6d, 0x6e, 0x6f, 0x70, 0x71, 0x72, 0x73, 0x74, 0x75, 0x76, 0x77, 0x78, 0x79, 0x7a, 0x30, 0x31, 0x32, 0x33, 0x34, 0x35, 0x36, 0x37, 0x38, 0x39, 0x2b, 0x2f},
	decodeMap: [256]uint8{0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x3e, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x3f, 0x34, 0x35, 0x36, 0x37, 0x38, 0x39, 0x3a, 0x3b, 0x3c, 0x3d, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x0, 0x1, 0x2, 0x3, 0x4, 0x5, 0x6, 0x7, 0x8, 0x9, 0xa, 0xb, 0xc, 0xd, 0xe, 0xf, 0x10, 0x11, 0x12, 0x13, 0x14, 0x15, 0x16, 0x17, 0x18, 0x19, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x1a, 0x1b, 0x1c, 0x1d, 0x1e, 0x1f, 0x20, 0x21, 0x22, 0x23, 0x24, 0x25, 0x26, 0x27, 0x28, 0x29, 0x2a, 0x2b, 0x2c, 0x2d, 0x2e, 0x2f, 0x30, 0x31, 0x32, 0x33, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff},
	padChar:   61,
	strict:    false,
}

func Hardcoded() *Encoding {
	return encodeStdHardcoded
}

func BenchmarkNewEncoding(b *testing.B) {
	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
		NewEncoding(encodeStd)
	}
}

func BenchmarkHardcoded(b *testing.B) {
	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
		Hardcoded()
	}
}

Benchmark results

$ go test -bench=. -benchmem
goos: linux
goarch: amd64
BenchmarkNewEncoding-4          10000000               228 ns/op             352 B/op          1 allocs/op
BenchmarkHardcoded-4            2000000000               0.45 ns/op            0 B/op          0 allocs/op

It's definitely faster to have it precomputed. I don't know if it's a good idea to hardcode it though.

[mvdan]

Current compiler can skip not referenced "static" global variable to make binary smaller. But It will include all init function.

The fix here is to make the compiler smarter, not to hand-optimize this. See #14840 and #19533.

The init time and init memory cost is decreased indeed.

Like others have said, performance is not the only goal of the standard library, and more often than not it's not the first goal. For most users, the slight extra init work doesn't matter, and the base64 package is simpler to read and maintain.

If someone really badly needs to squeeze performance out of a program, it's likely that they would be skipping the standard library anyway. For example, see fasthttp, which is a much faster but also trickier to use alternative to net/http.

Perhaps the compiler/linker could help here, though. If a function is free of side effects and can be computed statically, perhaps the global result could be computed at compile time rather than at run-time. Though I presume getting it right would be complicated, as it's a matter of tradeoffs.