Reading variables - more clock cycles?

[kevj]

If I want to keep a particular loop as fast as possible (fewest cycles), does it add more time to reference a value by it's variable name?

For example, do these two code blocks take the same number of cycles to execute....

EXAMPLE 1:

myVar = 273


EXAMPLE 2: 
(assuming SomeNum is already defined as a BYTE and loaded with the value "273")

myVar = SomeNum

And more specifically, when loading the registers of a 16-bit timer... let's say I already have the value "%01010101" loaded into a BYTE variable named "HighTimes" and "%11110001" loaded into a BYTE variable named "LowTimes".....

EXAMPLE 1:

TMR1H = %01010101
TMR1L = %11110001

EXAMPLE 2:

TMR1H = HighTimes
TMR1L = LowTimes

Does this second example take longer to execute because it must go look up the value of the variable before the copy to the register?

[Bruce]

They are all equal.

TMR1H = %01010101
TMR1L = %11110001

Produces;

   MOVLW 0x55                
   MOVWF TMR1H               
   MOVLW 0xf1                
   MOVWF TMR1L

HighTimes = 10
LowTimes = 20 ' loading these vars is the only real time difference

TMR1H = HighTimes
TMR1L = LowTimes

Produces;

   MOVF _HighTimes, W        
   MOVWF TMR1H               
   MOVF _LowTimes, W         
   MOVWF TMR1L

The 2nd version of course depends on which bank your vars are in.
Could take more code if they're not in bank0.