The as-if rule

Allows any and all code transformations that do not change the observable behavior of the program.

Explanation

The C++ compiler is permitted to perform any changes to the program as long as the following remains true:

Notes

Because the compiler is (usually) unable to analyze the code of an external library to determine whether it does or does not perform I/O or volatile access, third-party library calls also aren't affected by optimization. However, standard library calls may be replaced by other calls, eliminated, or added to the program during optimization. Statically-linked third-party library code may be subject to link-time optimization.

Programs with undefined behavior, e.g. due to access to an array out of bounds, modification of a const object, evaluation order if (n + 1 < n) abort( ) ; , it is removed entirely by some compilers because signed overflow is undefined behavior

Copy elision

The count and order of floating-point exceptions can be changed by optimization as long as the state as observed by the next floating-point operation is as if no optimization took place:

#pragma STDC FENV_ACCESS ON
for (i = 0; i < n; ++i)
    x + 1; // x + 1 is dead code, but may raise FP exceptions
           // (unless the optimizer can prove otherwise). However, executing it n times
           // will raise the same exception over and over. So this can be optimized to:
if (0 < n)
    x + 1;

Example

int& preinc(int& n) { return ++n; }
int add(int n, int m) { return n + m; }
 
// volatile input to prevent constant folding
volatile int input = 7;
 
// volatile output to make the result a visible side-effect
volatile int result;
 
int main()
{
    int n = input;
// using built-in operators would invoke undefined behavior
//  int m = ++n + ++n;
// but using functions makes sure the code executes as-if 
// the functions were not overlapped
    int m = add(preinc(n), preinc(n));
    result = m;
}

# full code of the main() function as produced by the GCC compiler
# x86 (Intel) platform:
        movl    input(%rip), %eax   # eax = input
        leal    3(%rax,%rax), %eax  # eax = 3 + eax + eax
        movl    %eax, result(%rip)  # result = eax
        xorl    %eax, %eax          # eax = 0 (the return value of main())
        ret
 
# PowerPC (IBM) platform:
        lwz 9,LC..1(2)
        li 3,0          # r3 = 0 (the return value of main())
        lwz 11,0(9)     # r11 = input;
        slwi 11,11,1    # r11 = r11 << 1;
        addi 0,11,3     # r0 = r11 + 3;
        stw 0,4(9)      # result = r0;
        blr
 
# Sparc (Sun) platform:
        sethi   %hi(result), %g2
        sethi   %hi(input), %g1
        mov     0, %o0                 # o0 = 0 (the return value of main)
        ld      [%g1+%lo(input)], %g1  # g1 = input
        add     %g1, %g1, %g1          # g1 = g1 + g1
        add     %g1, 3, %g1            # g1 = 3 + g1
        st      %g1, [%g2+%lo(result)] # result = g1
        jmp     %o7+8
        nop
 
# in all cases, the side effects of preinc() were eliminated, and the
# entire main() function was reduced to the equivalent of result = 2 * input + 3;

See also

• copy elision