Re: const reference / rvalue reference overloads

From:
"Bo Persson" <bop@gmb.dk>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Wed, 6 Oct 2010 14:35:34 CST
Message-ID:
<8h3t63FiasU1@mid.individual.net>
Adam Badura wrote:

Doesn't extensive use of rvalue references cause lots of overloads
of functions (in particular creation functions and constructors)? It
seems so to me. Lets consider this example:

class Person
{
public:
Person(
const std::string& first_name,
const std::string& last_name
)

m_first_name( first_name ),

  m_last_name( last_name )
{
}

const std::string& get_first_name() const
{
return m_first_name;
}

const std::string& get_last_name() const
{
return m_last_name;
}

private:
const std::string& m_first_name;
const std::string& m_last_name;

};

A very simple class. Correctly takes first_name and last_name as
const reference to avoid copying. (Although we might have used
simple values and swapping - however this requires a good swap
function which cannot be assumed in general.)

But we have now rvalue references which are even better so why not
to use them by adding additional constructor:

Person(
std::string&& first_name,
std::string&& last_name
)

m_first_name( std::move( first_name ) ),

  m_last_name( std::move( last_name ) )
{
}

All seems fine. We have a cool state-of-the-art code and so on. But
our eyes open in the moment we write following code:

void f( const Person& someone )
{
Person temp(
get_random_rvalue_first_name(),
someone.get_last_name()
);
}

This code no longer works as good. First argument is an rvalue
reference while second is an ordinary const reference. This results
in a call to the const reference constructor and no gain from
moving the rvalue. So it becomes clear we have to add yet another
two constructor overloads to cover all 4 cases. But it would be 8
and 16 with 3 and 4 arguments. It is obviously not acceptable.

So either Person will keep using old const references or it will
have to provide lots of overloads to cover all cases. It is not a
good situation.

How can be this overcome? It is possible to deal with it somehow?
What is needed is a way to say somehow "get whatever suits best and
pass it further".


It seems like the solution is to pass the parameters by value, and let the move
constructors take care of this!

http://cpp-next.com/archive/2009/09/move-it-with-rvalue-references/

Person(
std::string first_name,
std::string last_name
)
    : m_first_name( std::move( first_name ) ),
      m_last_name( std::move( last_name ) )
{ }

If you pass an rvalue to first_name, the parameter will be move constructed
twice (which is still rather cheap, and possibly optimzed to a single move by
the compiler).

If you pass an lvalue to last_name, it will be copied once (which it would be
anyway) to the parameter and then moved to m_last_name. The move again possibly
optimized away by the compiler.

Bo Persson

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