Question

While looking at some questions on optimization, this accepted answer for the question on coding practices for most effective use of the optimizer piqued my curiosity. The assertion is that local variables should be used for computations in a function, not output arguments. It was suggested this would allow the compiler to make additional optimizations otherwise not possible.

So, writing a simple bit of code for the example Foo class and compiling the code fragments with g++ v4.4 and -O2 gave some assembler output (use -S). The parts of the assembler listing with just the loop portion shown below. On examination of the output, it seems the loop is nearly identical for both, with just a difference in one address. That address being a pointer to the output argument for the first example or the local variable for the second.

There seems to no change in the actual effect whether the local variable is used or not. So the question breaks down to 3 parts:

a) is GCC not doing additional optimization, even given the hint suggested;

b) is GCC successfully optimizing in both cases, but should not be;

c) is GCC successfully optimizing in both cases, and is producing compliant output as defined by the C++ standard?

Here is the unoptimized function:

void DoSomething(const Foo& foo1, const Foo* foo2, int numFoo, Foo& barOut)
{
    for (int i=0; i<numFoo, i++)
    {
         barOut.munge(foo1, foo2[i]);
    }
}

And corresponding assembly:

.L3:
    movl    (%esi), %eax
    addl    $1, %ebx
    addl    $4, %esi
    movl    %eax, 8(%esp)
    movl    (%edi), %eax
    movl    %eax, 4(%esp)
    movl    20(%ebp), %eax       ; Note address is that of the output argument
    movl    %eax, (%esp)
    call    _ZN3Foo5mungeES_S_
    cmpl    %ebx, 16(%ebp)
    jg      .L3

Here is the re-written function:

void DoSomethingFaster(const Foo& foo1, const Foo* foo2, int numFoo, Foo& barOut)
{
    Foo barTemp = barOut;
    for (int i=0; i<numFoo, i++)
    {
         barTemp.munge(foo1, foo2[i]);
    }
    barOut = barTemp;
}

And here is the compiler output for the function using a local variable:

.L3:
    movl    (%esi), %eax          ; Load foo2[i] pointer into EAX
    addl    $1, %ebx              ; increment i
    addl    $4, %esi              ; increment foo2[i] (32-bit system, 8 on 64-bit systems)
    movl    %eax, 8(%esp)         ; PUSH foo2[i] onto stack (careful! from EAX, not ESI)
    movl    (%edi), %eax          ; Load foo1 pointer into EAX
    movl    %eax, 4(%esp)         ; PUSH foo1
    leal    -28(%ebp), %eax       ; Load barTemp pointer into EAX
    movl    %eax, (%esp)          ; PUSH the this pointer for barTemp
    call    _ZN3Foo5mungeES_S_    ; munge()!
    cmpl    %ebx, 16(%ebp)        ; i < numFoo
    jg      .L3                   ; recall incrementing i by one coming into the loop
                                  ; so test if greater

Answer 1

The example given in that answer was not a very good one because of the call to an unknown function the compiler cannot reason much about. Here’s a better example:

void FillOneA(int *array, int length, int& startIndex)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) array[startIndex + i] = 1;
}

void FillOneB(int *array, int length, int& startIndex)
{
    int localIndex = startIndex;
    for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) array[localIndex + i] = 1;
}

The first version optimizes poorly because it needs to protect against the possibility that somebody called it as

int array[10] = { 0 };
FillOneA(array, 5, array[1]);

resulting in {1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0 } since the iteration with i=1 modifies the startIndex parameter.

The second one doesn’t need to worry about the possibility that the array[localIndex + i] = 1 will modify localIndex because localIndex is a local variable whose address has never been taken.

In assembly (Intel notation, because that’s what I use):

FillOneA:
    mov     edx, [esp+8]
    xor     eax, eax
    test    edx, edx
    jle     $b
    push    esi
    mov     esi, [esp+16]
    push    edi
    mov     edi, [esp+12]
$a: mov     ecx, [esi]
    add     ecx, eax
    inc     eax
    mov     [edi+ecx*4], 1
    cmp     eax, edx
    jl      $a
    pop     edi
    pop     esi
$b: ret

FillOneB:
    mov     ecx, [esp+8]
    mov     eax, [esp+12]
    mov     edx, [eax]
    test    ecx, ecx
    jle     $a
    mov     eax, [esp+4]
    push    edi
    lea     edi, [eax+edx*4]
    mov     eax, 1
    rep stosd
    pop     edi
$a: ret

ADDED: Here’s an example where the compiler’s insight is into Bar, and not munge:

class Bar
{
public:
    float getValue() const
    {
        return valueBase * boost;
    }

private:
    float valueBase;
    float boost;
};

class Foo
{
public:
    void munge(float adjustment);
};

void Adjust10A(Foo& foo, const Bar& bar)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        foo.munge(bar.getValue());
}

void Adjust10B(Foo& foo, const Bar& bar)
{
    Bar localBar = bar;
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        foo.munge(localBar.getValue());
}

The resulting code is

Adjust10A:
    push    ecx
    push    ebx
    mov     ebx, [esp+12] ;; foo
    push    esi
    mov     esi, [esp+20] ;; bar
    push    edi
    mov     edi, 10
$a: fld     [esi+4] ;; bar.valueBase
    push    ecx
    fmul    [esi] ;; valueBase * boost
    mov     ecx, ebx
    fstp    [esp+16]
    fld     [esp+16]
    fstp    [esp]
    call    Foo::munge
    dec     edi
    jne     $a
    pop     edi
    pop     esi
    pop     ebx
    pop     ecx
    ret     0

Adjust10B:
    sub     esp, 8
    mov     ecx, [esp+16] ;; bar
    mov     eax, [ecx] ;; bar.valueBase
    mov     [esp], eax ;; localBar.valueBase
    fld     [esp] ;; localBar.valueBase
    mov     eax, [ecx+4] ;; bar.boost
    mov     [esp+4], eax ;; localBar.boost
    fmul    [esp+4] ;; localBar.getValue()
    push    esi
    push    edi
    mov     edi, [esp+20] ;; foo
    fstp    [esp+24]
    fld     [esp+24] ;; cache localBar.getValue()
    mov     esi, 10 ;; loop counter
$a: push    ecx
    mov     ecx, edi ;; foo
    fstp    [esp] ;; use cached value
    call    Foo::munge
    fld     [esp]
    dec     esi
    jne     $a ;; loop
    pop     edi
    fstp    ST(0)
    pop     esi
    add     esp, 8
    ret     0

Observe that the inner loop in Adjust10A must recalculate the value since it must protect against the possibility that foo.munge changed bar.

That said, this style of optimization is not a slam dunk. (For example, we could’ve gotten the same effect by manually caching bar.getValue() into localValue.) It tends to be most helpful for vectorized operations, since those can be paralellized.