Why are multi-variable return statements allowed? - c++

Simply stated, why does the following code compile?
#include<iostream>
int foo(){
return 0,1;
}
int main(){
int a,b = foo();
std::cout << a << " " << b << std::endl;
std::cout << foo();
return 0;
}
I am using a 64-bit Window's machine, and compiling with Dev-C++ (using the MinGW GCC 4.5.2 32-bit compiler).
This code prints the following output:
2686824 1
1
I strongly suspect that the value contained in a is the usual garbage stored in uninitialized variables.
It is clear from this question that returning multiple values from functions is not common practice in industry, and it is definitely discouraged and penalized in programming courses taught at academic institutions.
So why does it work? As I've matured as a programmer, I've realized the incredible value of compiler errors, which are infinitely more intelligible than linker or run-time errors, and obviously way better than bugs.
To be clear, I'm more interested in why this has been allowed from a language design perspective, rather than the technical specifics of how the compiler does its thing (unless, in this case, implementation realities or technical consequences have made it difficult/impossible to detect/manage multiple return variables).
Are there some esoteric cases where multi-variable return statments were deemed useful?

You still only return one value, which is 1.
return 0,1;
makes use of the comma operator, its result is its right hand side. With the right warning level, your compiler (gcc and clang at least) will warn because its left hand side has no effect.
If you actually want to return multiple values, you can return a std::tuple (or std::pair):
auto fun () {
return std::make_tuple(0,1);
}
int main () {
int a, b;
std::tie(a,b) = fun();
// Now a == 0, b == 1
}
Equivalent alternative as of C++17:
auto fun () {
return std::make_tuple(0,1);
}
int main () {
auto [a,b] = fun();
}
Live

0,1 is an operator that does nothing except evaluate both expressions in order and results in the value of the second operator (1). So return 0,1 is equivalent to saying return 1.
int a,b = foo(); creates two variables. a is uninitialized, and b is assigned the return value of foo().
That's why the value of b is 1 and the value of a is wacky (it's undefined).
IME, the main benefit of the comma operator is for loops in C. For example, suppose you wanted to enumerate elements of a linked list. Lists don't have a built-in concept of order so you end up keeping two trackers of position in the list.
for (index = 0, curr_node = list_begin;
curr_node != NULL;
++index, curr_node = curr_node->next)
{
// Stuff
}
It's a convenient little trick for readability and it also guarantees that index/curr_node are in sync no matter what you do with break or continue.

Related

Composite function in C++

I am a beginner in C++ and want to do simple example of composite function.
For example, in MATLAB, I can write
a = #(x) 2*x
b = #(y) 3*y
a(b(1))
Answer is 6
I searched following questions.
function composition in C++ / C++11 and
Function Composition in C++
But they are created using advanced features, such as templates, to which I am not much familiar at this time. Is there a simple and more direct way to achieve this? In above MATLAB code, user does not need to know implementation of function handles. User can just use proper syntax to get result. Is there such way in C++?
** Another Edit:**
In above code, I am putting a value at the end. However, if I want to pass the result to a third function, MATLAB can still consider it as a function. But, how to do this in C++?
For example, in addition to above code, consider this code:
c = #(p,q) a(p)* b(q) %This results a function
c(1,2)
answer=12
d = #(r) a(b(r))
d(1)
answer=6
function [ output1 ] = f1( arg1 )
val = 2.0;
output1 = feval(arg1,val)
end
f1(d)
answer = 12
In this code, c takes two functions as input and d is composite function. In the next example, function f1 takes a function as argument and use MATLAB builtin function feval to evaluate the function at val.
How can I achieve this in C++?
How about:
#include <iostream>
int main(int, char**)
{
auto a = [](int x) { return 2 * x; };
auto b = [](int y) { return 3 * y; };
for (int i = 0; i < 5; ++i)
std::cout << i << " -> " << a(b(i)) << std::endl;
return 0;
}
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your question, but it sounds easy:
int a(const int x) { return x * 2; }
int b(const int y) { return y * 3; }
std::cout << a(b(1)) << std::endl;
Regarding your latest edit, you can make a function return a result of another function:
int fun1(const int c) { return a(c); }
std::cout << fun1(1) << std::endl;
Note that this returns a number, the result of calling a, not the function a itself. Sure, you can return a pointer to that function, but then the syntax would be different: you'd have to write something like fun1()(1), which is rather ugly and complicated.
C++'s evaluation strategy for function arguments is always "eager" and usually "by value". The short version of what that means is, a composed function call sequence such as
x = a(b(c(1)));
is exactly the same as
{
auto t0 = c(1);
auto t1 = b(t0);
x = a(t1);
}
(auto t0 means "give t0 whatever type is most appropriate"; it is a relatively new feature and may not work in your C++ compiler. The curly braces indicate that the temporary variables t0 and t1 are destroyed after the assignment to x.)
I bring this up because you keep talking about functions "taking functions as input". There are programming languages, such as R, where writing a(b(1)) would pass the expression b(1) to a, and only actually call b when a asked for the expression to be evaluated. I thought MATLAB was not like that, but I could be wrong. Regardless, C++ is definitely not like that. In C++, a(b(1)) first evaluates b(1) and then passes the result of that evaluation to a; a has no way of finding out that the result came from a call to b. The only case in C++ that is correctly described as "a function taking another function as input" would correspond to your example using feval.
Now: The most direct translation of the MATLAB code you've shown is
#include <stdio.h>
static double a(double x) { return 2*x; }
static double b(double y) { return 3*y; }
static double c(double p, double q) { return a(p) * b(q); }
static double d(double r) { return a(b(r)); }
static double f1(double (*arg1)(double))
{ return arg1(2.0); }
int main()
{
printf("%g\n", a(b(1))); // prints 6
printf("%g\n", c(1,2)); // prints 12
printf("%g\n", d(1)); // prints 6
printf("%g\n", f1(d)); // prints 12
printf("%g\n", f1(a)); // prints 4
return 0;
}
(C++ has no need for explicit syntax like feval, because the typed parameter declaration, double (*arg1)(double) tells the compiler that arg1(2.0) is valid. In older code you may see (*arg1)(2.0) but that's not required, and I think it makes the code less readable.)
(I have used printf in this code, instead of C++'s iostreams, partly because I personally think printf is much more ergonomic than iostreams, and partly because that makes this program also a valid C program with the same semantics. That may be useful, for instance, if the reason you are learning C++ is because you want to write MATLAB extensions, which, the last time I checked, was actually easier if you stuck to plain C.)
There are significant differences; for instance, the MATLAB functions accept vectors, whereas these C++ functions only take single values; if I'd wanted b to call c I would have had to swap them or write a "forward declaration" of c above b; and in C++, (with a few exceptions that you don't need to worry about right now,) all your code has to be inside one function or another. Learning these differences is part of learning C++, but you don't need to confuse yourself with templates and lambdas and classes and so on just yet. Stick to free functions with fixed type signatures at first.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that in
static double c(double p, double q) { return a(p) * b(q); }
the calls to a and b might happen in either order. There is talk of changing this but it has not happened yet.
int a(const int x){return x * 2;}
int b(const int x){return x * 3;}
int fun1(const int x){return a(x);}
std::cout << fun1(1) << std::endl; //returns 2
This is basic compile-time composition. If you wanted runtime composition, things get a tad more involved.

Function of type int not using return C++

If I have a function like this:
int addNumbers(int x, int y)
{
return x + y;
}
and if I use it as such:
cout << addNumbers(4, 5) << endl;
It will return and print 9. Using the same cout line above, if I comment out or delete the return in addNumbers, it will return and print 1. If I do this:
int addNumbers(int x, int y)
{
int answer = x + y;
//return x + y;
}
It will automatically return and print 9, without me using return. Similarly, I can write int answer = x; and it will return 4. I can also write this:
int addNumbers(int x, int y)
{
int answer = x;
answer = 1;
//return x + y;
}
and it will still return 4.
What exactly is returned and why? It only returns something other than 1 when I use the parameter variables, but it isn't returning the variable answer as shown in the last example because I changed it to 1 and it still returned the value of x (4).
ยง6.6.3 [stmt.return]/p2:
Flowing off the end of a function is equivalent to a return with no
value; this results in undefined behavior in a value-returning
function.
(main() is a special exception. Flowing off the end of main() is equivalent to a return 0;)
Permissible UB include:
Returning what you "wanted" to return
Returning a garbage value instead
Crashing
Sending your password to hackers
Formatting your hard drive
Making your computer explode and blow your legs off
Conjuring nasal demons
Traveling back in time and fixing your program to the right thing
Creating a black hole
......
But seriously, UB can manifest in all sorts of ways. For instance, given this code:
#include <iostream>
bool foo = false;
int addNumbers(int x, int y)
{
int answer = x;
answer = 1;
//return x + y;
}
int main(){
if(!foo) {
addNumbers(10, 20);
std::cout << 1 << std::endl;
}
else {
std::cout << 2 << std::endl;
}
}
clang++ at -O2 prints 2.
Why? Because it deduced that addNumbers(10, 20); has undefined behavior, which allows it to assume that the first branch is never taken and that foo is always true, even though that's obviously not the case.
You are relying on "undefined behaviour". The return value is, for simple types, typically stored in a register, which may also be used in the formation of the result of the calculation. But it may also NOT be used, and you get some arbitrary "random" result, and being "undefined behaviour", you may also get any other possible operation that your computer may perform - such as crashing or executing some code you didn't want to execute...
You are observing undefined behavior. There is no good reason "why" the program does that, because it isn't a well-formed program. It could do anything, including delete itself from disk when run. Enable compiler warnings and errors (e.g. g++ -Wall -Wextra -Werror) and you will be automatically prevented from writing such code (as you should be).
Thus it is undefined behavior, disassembling your binary may explain why such values are returned.
objdump -d example.bin
Since the return value is associated with the rax registry, if the compiler uses rax to process the function, the returned value is the value that remains in rax.
Anyway, you shouldn't do this because compiler optimizations and use of registries isn't known when you write such code.

Contiguous memory guarantees with C++ function parameters

Appel [App02] very briefly mentions that C (and presumably C++) provide guarantees regarding the locations of actual parameters in contiguous memory as opposed to registers when the address-of operator is applied to one of formal parameters within the function block.
e.g.
void foo(int a, int b, int c, int d)
{
int* p = &a;
for(int k = 0; k < 4; k++)
{
std::cout << *p << " ";
p++;
}
std::cout << std::endl;
}
and an invocation such as...
foo(1,2,3,4);
will produce the following output "1 2 3 4"
My question is "How does this interact with calling conventions?"
For example __fastcall on GCC will try place the first two arguments in registers and the remainder on the stack. The two requirements are at odds with each other, is there any way to formally reason about what will happen or is it subject to the capricious nature of implementation defined behaviour?
[App02] Modern Compiler Implementation in Java, Andrew w. Appel, Chapter 6, Page 124
Update: I suppose that this question is answered. I think I was wrong to base the whole question on contiguous memory allocation when what I was looking for (and what the reference speaks of) is the apparent mismatch between the need for parameters being in memory due the use of address-of as opposed to in registers due to calling conventions, maybe that is a question for another day.
Someone on the internet is wrong and sometimes that someone is me.
First of all your code doesn't always produce 1, 2, 3, 4. Just check this one: http://ideone.com/ohtt0
Correct code is at least like this:
void foo(int a, int b, int c, int d)
{
int* p = &a;
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
std::cout << *p;
p++;
}
}
So now let's try with fastcall, here:
void __attribute__((fastcall)) foo(int a, int b, int c, int d)
{
int* p = &a;
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
std::cout << *p << " ";
p++;
}
}
int main()
{
foo(1,2,3,4);
}
Result is messy: 1 -1216913420 134514560 134514524
So I really doubt that something can be guaranteed here.
There is nothing in the standard about calling conventions or how parameters are passed.
It is true that if you take the address of one variable (or parameter) that one has to be stored in memory. It doesn't say that the value cannot be passed in a register and then stored to memory when its address is taken.
It definitely doesn't affect other variables, who's addresses are not taken.
The C++ standard has no concept of a calling convention. That's left for the compiler to deal with.
In this case, if the standard requires that parameters be contiguous when the address-of operator is applied, there's a conflict between what the standard requires of your compiler and what you require of it.
It's up to the compiler to decide what to do. I'd think most compilers would give your requirements priority over the standard's, however.
Your basic assumption is flawed. On my machine, foo(1,2,3,4) using your code prints out:
1 -680135568 32767 4196336
Using g++ (Ubuntu 4.4.3-4ubuntu5) 4.4.3 on 64-bit x86.

C++ Output evaluation order with embedded function calls

I'm a TA for an intro C++ class. The following question was asked on a test last week:
What is the output from the following program:
int myFunc(int &x) {
int temp = x * x * x;
x += 1;
return temp;
}
int main() {
int x = 2;
cout << myFunc(x) << endl << myFunc(x) << endl << myFunc(x) << endl;
}
The answer, to me and all my colleagues, is obviously:
8
27
64
But now several students have pointed out that when they run this in certain environments they actually get the opposite:
64
27
8
When I run it in my linux environment using gcc I get what I would expect. Using MinGW on my Windows machine I get what they're talking about.
It seems to be evaluating the last call to myFunc first, then the second call and then the first, then once it has all the results it outputs them in the normal order, starting with the first. But because the calls were made out of order the numbers are opposite.
It seems to me to be a compiler optimization, choosing to evaluate the function calls in the opposite order, but I don't really know why. My question is: are my assumptions correct? Is that what's going on in the background? Or is there something totally different? Also, I don't really understand why there would be a benefit to evaluating the functions backwards and then evaluating output forward. Output would have to be forward because of the way ostream works, but it seems like evaluation of the functions should be forward as well.
Thanks for your help!
The C++ standard does not define what order the subexpressions of a full expression are evaluated, except for certain operators which introduce an order (the comma operator, ternary operator, short-circuiting logical operators), and the fact that the expressions which make up the arguments/operands of a function/operator are all evaluated before the function/operator itself.
GCC is not obliged to explain to you (or me) why it wants to order them as it does. It might be a performance optimisation, it might be because the compiler code came out a few lines shorter and simpler that way, it might be because one of the mingw coders personally hates you, and wants to ensure that if you make assumptions that aren't guaranteed by the standard, your code goes wrong. Welcome to the world of open standards :-)
Edit to add: litb makes a point below about (un)defined behavior. The standard says that if you modify a variable multiple times in an expression, and if there exists a valid order of evaluation for that expression, such that the variable is modified multiple times without a sequence point in between, then the expression has undefined behavior. That doesn't apply here, because the variable is modified in the call to the function, and there's a sequence point at the start of any function call (even if the compiler inlines it). However, if you'd manually inlined the code:
std::cout << pow(x++,3) << endl << pow(x++,3) << endl << pow(x++,3) << endl;
Then that would be undefined behavior. In this code, it is valid for the compiler to evaluate all three "x++" subexpressions, then the three calls to pow, then start on the various calls to operator<<. Because this order is valid and has no sequence points separating the modification of x, the results are completely undefined. In your code snippet, only the order of execution is unspecified.
Exactly why does this have unspecified behaviour.
When I first looked at this example I felt that the behaviour was well defined because this expression is actually short hand for a set of function calls.
Consider this more basic example:
cout << f1() << f2();
This is expanded to a sequence of function calls, where the kind of calls depend on the operators being members or non-members:
// Option 1: Both are members
cout.operator<<(f1 ()).operator<< (f2 ());
// Option 2: Both are non members
operator<< ( operator<<(cout, f1 ()), f2 () );
// Option 3: First is a member, second non-member
operator<< ( cout.operator<<(f1 ()), f2 () );
// Option 4: First is a non-member, second is a member
cout.operator<<(f1 ()).operator<< (f2 ());
At the lowest level these will generate almost identical code so I will refer only to the first option from now.
There is a guarantee in the standard that the compiler must evaluate the arguments to each function call before the body of the function is entered. In this case, cout.operator<<(f1()) must be evaluated before operator<<(f2()) is, since the result of cout.operator<<(f1()) is required to call the other operator.
The unspecified behaviour kicks in because although the calls to the operators must be ordered there is no such requirement on their arguments. Therefore, the resulting order can be one of:
f2()
f1()
cout.operator<<(f1())
cout.operator<<(f1()).operator<<(f2());
Or:
f1()
f2()
cout.operator<<(f1())
cout.operator<<(f1()).operator<<(f2());
Or finally:
f1()
cout.operator<<(f1())
f2()
cout.operator<<(f1()).operator<<(f2());
The order in which function call parameters is evaluated is unspecified. In short, you shouldn't use arguments that have side-effects that affect the meaning and result of the statement.
Yeah, the order of evaluation of functional arguments is "Unspecified" according to the Standards.
Hence the outputs differ on different platforms
As has already been stated, you've wandered into the haunted forest of undefined behavior. To get what is expected every time you can either remove the side effects:
int myFunc(int &x) {
int temp = x * x * x;
return temp;
}
int main() {
int x = 2;
cout << myFunc(x) << endl << myFunc(x+1) << endl << myFunc(x+2) << endl;
//Note that you can't use the increment operator (++) here. It has
//side-effects so it will have the same problem
}
or break the function calls up into separate statements:
int myFunc(int &x) {
int temp = x * x * x;
x += 1;
return temp;
}
int main() {
int x = 2;
cout << myFunc(x) << endl;
cout << myFunc(x) << endl;
cout << myFunc(x) << endl;
}
The second version is probably better for a test, since it forces them to consider the side effects.
And this is why, every time you write a function with a side-effect, God kills a kitten!

i++ less efficient than ++i, how to show this?

I am trying to show by example that the prefix increment is more efficient than the postfix increment.
In theory this makes sense: i++ needs to be able to return the unincremented original value and therefore store it, whereas ++i can return the incremented value without storing the previous value.
But is there a good example to show this in practice?
I tried the following code:
int array[100];
int main()
{
for(int i = 0; i < sizeof(array)/sizeof(*array); i++)
array[i] = 1;
}
I compiled it using gcc 4.4.0 like this:
gcc -Wa,-adhls -O0 myfile.cpp
I did this again, with the postfix increment changed to a prefix increment:
for(int i = 0; i < sizeof(array)/sizeof(*array); ++i)
The result is identical assembly code in both cases.
This was somewhat unexpected. It seemed like that by turning off optimizations (with -O0) I should see a difference to show the concept. What am I missing? Is there a better example to show this?
In the general case, the post increment will result in a copy where a pre-increment will not. Of course this will be optimized away in a large number of cases and in the cases where it isn't the copy operation will be negligible (ie., for built in types).
Here's a small example that show the potential inefficiency of post-increment.
#include <stdio.h>
class foo
{
public:
int x;
foo() : x(0) {
printf( "construct foo()\n");
};
foo( foo const& other) {
printf( "copy foo()\n");
x = other.x;
};
foo& operator=( foo const& rhs) {
printf( "assign foo()\n");
x = rhs.x;
return *this;
};
foo& operator++() {
printf( "preincrement foo\n");
++x;
return *this;
};
foo operator++( int) {
printf( "postincrement foo\n");
foo temp( *this);
++x;
return temp;
};
};
int main()
{
foo bar;
printf( "\n" "preinc example: \n");
++bar;
printf( "\n" "postinc example: \n");
bar++;
}
The results from an optimized build (which actually removes a second copy operation in the post-increment case due to RVO):
construct foo()
preinc example:
preincrement foo
postinc example:
postincrement foo
copy foo()
In general, if you don't need the semantics of the post-increment, why take the chance that an unnecessary copy will occur?
Of course, it's good to keep in mind that a custom operator++() - either the pre or post variant - is free to return whatever it wants (or even do whatever it wants), and I'd imagine that there are quite a few that don't follow the usual rules. Occasionally I've come across implementations that return "void", which makes the usual semantic difference go away.
You won't see any difference with integers. You need to use iterators or something where post and prefix really do something different. And you need to turn all optimisations on, not off!
I like to follow the rule of "say what you mean".
++i simply increments. i++ increments and has a special, non-intuitive result of evaluation. I only use i++ if I explicitly want that behavior, and use ++i in all other cases. If you follow this practice, when you do see i++ in code, it's obvious that post-increment behavior really was intended.
Several points:
First, you're unlikely to see a major performance difference in any way
Second, your benchmarking is useless if you have optimizations disabled. What we want to know is if this change gives us more or less efficient code, which means that we have to use it with the most efficient code the compiler is able to produce. We don't care whether it is faster in unoptimized builds, we need to know if it is faster in optimized ones.
For built-in datatypes like integers, the compiler is generally able to optimize the difference away. The problem mainly occurs for more complex types with overloaded increment iterators, where the compiler can't trivially see that the two operations would be equivalent in the context.
You should use the code that clearest expresses your intent. Do you want to "add one to the value", or "add one to the value, but keep working on the original value a bit longer"? Usually, the former is the case, and then a pre-increment better expresses your intent.
If you want to show the difference, the simplest option is simply to impement both operators, and point out that one requires an extra copy, the other does not.
This code and its comments should demonstrate the differences between the two.
class a {
int index;
some_ridiculously_big_type big;
//etc...
};
// prefix ++a
void operator++ (a& _a) {
++_a.index
}
// postfix a++
void operator++ (a& _a, int b) {
_a.index++;
}
// now the program
int main (void) {
a my_a;
// prefix:
// 1. updates my_a.index
// 2. copies my_a.index to b
int b = (++my_a).index;
// postfix
// 1. creates a copy of my_a, including the *big* member.
// 2. updates my_a.index
// 3. copies index out of the **copy** of my_a that was created in step 1
int c = (my_a++).index;
}
You can see that the postfix has an extra step (step 1) which involves creating a copy of the object. This has both implications for both memory consumption and runtime. That is why prefix is more efficient that postfix for non-basic types.
Depending on some_ridiculously_big_type and also on whatever you do with the result of the incrememt, you'll be able to see the difference either with or without optimizations.
In response to Mihail, this is a somewhat more portable version his code:
#include <cstdio>
#include <ctime>
using namespace std;
#define SOME_BIG_CONSTANT 100000000
#define OUTER 40
int main( int argc, char * argv[] ) {
int d = 0;
time_t now = time(0);
if ( argc == 1 ) {
for ( int n = 0; n < OUTER; n++ ) {
int i = 0;
while(i < SOME_BIG_CONSTANT) {
d += i++;
}
}
}
else {
for ( int n = 0; n < OUTER; n++ ) {
int i = 0;
while(i < SOME_BIG_CONSTANT) {
d += ++i;
}
}
}
int t = time(0) - now;
printf( "%d\n", t );
return d % 2;
}
The outer loops are there to allow me to fiddle the timings to get something suitable on my platform.
I don't use VC++ any more, so i compiled it (on Windows) with:
g++ -O3 t.cpp
I then ran it by alternating:
a.exe
and
a.exe 1
My timing results were approximately the same for both cases. Sometimes one version would be faster by up to 20% and sometimes the other. This I would guess is due to other processes running on my system.
Try to use while or do something with returned value, e.g.:
#define SOME_BIG_CONSTANT 1000000000
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
int i = 1;
int d = 0;
DWORD d1 = GetTickCount();
while(i < SOME_BIG_CONSTANT + 1)
{
d += i++;
}
DWORD t1 = GetTickCount() - d1;
printf("%d", d);
printf("\ni++ > %d <\n", t1);
i = 0;
d = 0;
d1 = GetTickCount();
while(i < SOME_BIG_CONSTANT)
{
d += ++i;
}
t1 = GetTickCount() - d1;
printf("%d", d);
printf("\n++i > %d <\n", t1);
return 0;
}
Compiled with VS 2005 using /O2 or /Ox, tried on my desktop and on laptop.
Stably get something around on laptop, on desktop numbers are a bit different (but rate is about the same):
i++ > 8xx <
++i > 6xx <
xx means that numbers are different e.g. 813 vs 640 - still around 20% speed up.
And one more point - if you replace "d +=" with "d = " you will see nice optimization trick:
i++ > 935 <
++i > 0 <
However, it's quite specific. But after all, I don't see any reasons to change my mind and think there is no difference :)
Perhaps you could just show the theoretical difference by writing out both versions with x86 assembly instructions? As many people have pointed out before, compiler will always make its own decisions on how best to compile/assemble the program.
If the example is meant for students not familiar with the x86 instruction set, you might consider using the MIPS32 instruction set -- for some odd reason many people seem to find it to be easier to comprehend than x86 assembly.
Ok, all this prefix/postfix "optimization" is just... some big misunderstanding.
The major idea that i++ returns its original copy and thus requires copying the value.
This may be correct for some unefficient implementations of iterators. However in 99% of cases even with STL iterators there is no difference because compiler knows how to optimize it and the actual iterators are just pointers that look like class. And of course there is no difference for primitive types like integers on pointers.
So... forget about it.
EDIT: Clearification
As I had mentioned, most of STL iterator classes are just pointers wrapped with classes, that have all member functions inlined allowing out-optimization of such irrelevant copy.
And yes, if you have your own iterators without inlined member functions, then it may
work slower. But, you should just understand what compiler does and what does not.
As a small prove, take this code:
int sum1(vector<int> const &v)
{
int n;
for(auto x=v.begin();x!=v.end();x++)
n+=*x;
return n;
}
int sum2(vector<int> const &v)
{
int n;
for(auto x=v.begin();x!=v.end();++x)
n+=*x;
return n;
}
int sum3(set<int> const &v)
{
int n;
for(auto x=v.begin();x!=v.end();x++)
n+=*x;
return n;
}
int sum4(set<int> const &v)
{
int n;
for(auto x=v.begin();x!=v.end();++x)
n+=*x;
return n;
}
Compile it to assembly and compare sum1 and sum2, sum3 and sum4...
I just can tell you... gcc give exactly the same code with -02.