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Copy elision - cppreference.com

When certain criteria are met, the creation of a class object from a source object of the same type (ignoring cv-qualification) can be omitted, even if the selected constructor and/or the destructor for the object have side effects. This elision of object creation is called copy elision .

[edit] Explanation

Copy elision is permitted in the following circumstances (which may be combined to eliminate multiple copies):

(until C++17) (since C++11) (since C++20)

When copy elision occurs, the implementation treats the source and target of the omitted initialization as simply two different ways of referring to the same object.

The destruction occurs at the later of the times when the two objects would have been destroyed without the optimization.

(until C++11)

If the first parameter of the selected constructor is an rvalue reference to the object’s type, the destruction of that object occurs when the target would have been destroyed. Otherwise, the destruction occurs at the later of the times when the two objects would have been destroyed without the optimization.

(since C++11) Prvalue semantics ("guaranteed copy elision")

Since C++17, a prvalue is not materialized until needed, and then it is constructed directly into the storage of its final destination. This sometimes means that even when the language syntax visually suggests a copy/move (e.g. copy initialization), no copy/move is performed — which means the type need not have an accessible copy/move constructor at all. Examples include:

T f()
{
    return U(); // constructs a temporary of type U,
                // then initializes the returned T from the temporary
}
T g()
{
    return T(); // constructs the returned T directly; no move
}
The destructor of the type returned must be accessible at the point of the return statement and non-deleted, even though no T object is destroyed.
T x = T(T(f())); // x is initialized by the result of f() directly; no move
This can only apply when the object being initialized is known not to be a potentially-overlapping subobject:
struct C { /* ... */ };
C f();
 
struct D;
D g();
 
struct D : C
{
    D() : C(f()) {}    // no elision when initializing a base class subobject
    D(int) : D(g()) {} // no elision because the D object being initialized might
                       // be a base-class subobject of some other class
};

Note: This rule does not specify an optimization, and the Standard does not formally describe it as "copy elision" (because nothing is being elided). Instead, the C++17 core language specification of prvalues and temporaries is fundamentally different from that of earlier C++ revisions: there is no longer a temporary to copy/move from. Another way to describe C++17 mechanics is "unmaterialized value passing" or "deferred temporary materialization": prvalues are returned and used without ever materializing a temporary.

(since C++17) [edit] Notes

Copy elision is the only allowed form of optimization(until C++14) one of the two allowed forms of optimization, alongside allocation elision and extension,(since C++14) that can change observable side-effects. Because some compilers do not perform copy elision in every situation where it is allowed (e.g., in debug mode), programs that rely on the side-effects of copy/move constructors and destructors are not portable.

In a return statement or a throw expression, if the compiler cannot perform copy elision but the conditions for copy elision are met, or would be met except that the source is a function parameter, the compiler will attempt to use the move constructor even if the source operand is designated by an lvalue(until C++23) the source operand will be treated as an rvalue(since C++23); see return statement for details.

In constant expression and constant initialization, copy elision is never performed.

struct A
{
    void* p;
    constexpr A() : p(this) {}
    A(const A&); // Disable trivial copyability
};
 
constexpr A a;  // OK: a.p points to a
 
constexpr A f()
{
    A x;
    return x;
}
constexpr A b = f(); // error: b.p would be dangling and point to the x inside f
 
constexpr A c = A(); // (until C++17) error: c.p would be dangling and point to a temporary
                     // (since C++17) OK: c.p points to c; no temporary is involved
(since C++11) [edit] Example
#include <iostream>
 
struct Noisy
{
    Noisy() { std::cout << "constructed at " << this << '\n'; }
    Noisy(const Noisy&) { std::cout << "copy-constructed\n"; }
    Noisy(Noisy&&) { std::cout << "move-constructed\n"; }
    ~Noisy() { std::cout << "destructed at " << this << '\n'; }
};
 
Noisy f()
{
    Noisy v = Noisy(); // (until C++17) copy elision initializing v from a temporary;
                       //               the move constructor may be called
                       // (since C++17) "guaranteed copy elision"
    return v; // copy elision ("NRVO") from v to the result object;
              // the move constructor may be called
}
 
void g(Noisy arg)
{
    std::cout << "&arg = " << &arg << '\n';
}
 
int main()
{
    Noisy v = f(); // (until C++17) copy elision initializing v from the result of f()
                   // (since C++17) "guaranteed copy elision"
 
    std::cout << "&v = " << &v << '\n';
 
    g(f()); // (until C++17) copy elision initializing arg from the result of f()
            // (since C++17) "guaranteed copy elision"
}

Possible output:

constructed at 0x7fffd635fd4e
&v = 0x7fffd635fd4e
constructed at 0x7fffd635fd4f
&arg = 0x7fffd635fd4f
destructed at 0x7fffd635fd4f
destructed at 0x7fffd635fd4e
[edit] Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR Applied to Behavior as published Correct behavior CWG 1967 C++11 when copy elision is done using a move constructor, the
lifetime of the moved-from object was still considered not considered CWG 2426 C++17 destructor was not required when returning a prvalue destructor is potentially invoked CWG 2930 C++98 only copy(/move) operations could be elided, but a
non-copy(/move) constructor can be selected by copy-initialization elides any object construction
of related copy-initializations [edit] See also

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