c++gccconstantsfunction-attributes

pure/const function attributes in different compilers


pure is a function attribute which says that a function does not modify any global memory.
const is a function attribute which says that a function does not read/modify any global memory.

Given that information, the compiler can do some additional optimisations.

Example for GCC:

float sigmoid(float x) __attribute__ ((const));

float calculate(float x, unsigned int C) {
    float sum = 0;
    for(unsigned int i = 0; i < C; ++i)
        sum += sigmoid(x);
    return sum;
}

float sigmoid(float x) { return 1.0f / (1.0f - exp(-x)); }

In that example, the compiler could optimise the function calculate to:

float calculate(float x, unsigned int C) {
    float sum = 0;
    float temp = C ? sigmoid(x) : 0.0f;
    for(unsigned int i = 0; i < C; ++i)
        sum += temp;
    return sum;
}

Or if your compiler is clever enough (and not so strict about floats):

float calculate(float x, unsigned int C) { return C ? sigmoid(x) * C : 0.0f; }

How can I mark a function in such way for the different compilers, i.e. GCC, Clang, ICC, MSVC or others?


Solution

  • In general, it seems that almost all compilers support the GCC attributes. MSVC is so far the only compiler which does not support them (and which also doesn't have any alternative).