c++ - C++11 std::function slower than virtual calls?

Question

I am creating a mechanism which allows users to form arbitrary complex functions from basic building blocks using the decorator pattern. This works fine functionality wise, but I don't like the fact that it involves a lot of virtual calls, particularly when the nesting depth becomes large. It worries me because the complex function may called often (>100.000 times).

To avoid this problem, I tried to turn the decorator scheme into a std::function once it was finished (cfr. to_function() in the SSCCE). All internal function calls are wired during construction of the std::function. I figured this would be faster to evaluate than the original decorator scheme because no virtual lookups need to be performed in the std::function version.

Alas, benchmarks prove me wrong: the decorator scheme is in fact faster than the std::function I built from it. So now I am left wondering why. Maybe my test setup is faulty since I only use two trivial basic functions, which means the vtable lookups may be cached?

The code I used is included below, unfortunately it is quite long.

---

SSCCE

// sscce.cpp
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <memory>
#include <functional>
#include <random>

/**
 * Base class for Pipeline scheme (implemented via decorators)
 */
class Pipeline {
protected:
    std::unique_ptr<Pipeline> wrappee;
    Pipeline(std::unique_ptr<Pipeline> wrap)
    :wrappee(std::move(wrap)){}
    Pipeline():wrappee(nullptr){}

public:
    typedef std::function<double(double)> FnSig;
    double operator()(double input) const{
        if(wrappee.get()) input=wrappee->operator()(input);
        return process(input);
    }

    virtual double process(double input) const=0;
    virtual ~Pipeline(){}

    // Returns a std::function which contains the entire Pipeline stack.
    virtual FnSig to_function() const=0;
};

/**
 * CRTP for to_function().
 */
template <class Derived>
class Pipeline_CRTP : public Pipeline{
protected:
    Pipeline_CRTP(const Pipeline_CRTP<Derived> &o):Pipeline(o){}
    Pipeline_CRTP(std::unique_ptr<Pipeline> wrappee)
    :Pipeline(std::move(wrappee)){}
    Pipeline_CRTP():Pipeline(){};
public:
    typedef typename Pipeline::FnSig FnSig;

    FnSig to_function() const override{
        if(Pipeline::wrappee.get()!=nullptr){

            FnSig wrapfun = Pipeline::wrappee->to_function();
            FnSig processfun = std::bind(&Derived::process,
                static_cast<const Derived*>(this),
                std::placeholders::_1);
            FnSig fun = [=](double input){
                return processfun(wrapfun(input));
            };
            return std::move(fun);

        }else{

            FnSig processfun = std::bind(&Derived::process,
                static_cast<const Derived*>(this),
                std::placeholders::_1);
            FnSig fun = [=](double input){
                return processfun(input);
            };
            return std::move(fun);
        }

    }

    virtual ~Pipeline_CRTP(){}
};

/**
 * First concrete derived class: simple scaling.
 */
class Scale: public Pipeline_CRTP<Scale>{
private:
    double scale_;
public:
    Scale(std::unique_ptr<Pipeline> wrap, double scale) // todo move
:Pipeline_CRTP<Scale>(std::move(wrap)),scale_(scale){}
    Scale(double scale):Pipeline_CRTP<Scale>(),scale_(scale){}

    double process(double input) const override{
        return input*scale_;
    }
};

/**
 * Second concrete derived class: offset.
 */
class Offset: public Pipeline_CRTP<Offset>{
private:
    double offset_;
public:
    Offset(std::unique_ptr<Pipeline> wrap, double offset) // todo move
:Pipeline_CRTP<Offset>(std::move(wrap)),offset_(offset){}
    Offset(double offset):Pipeline_CRTP<Offset>(),offset_(offset){}

    double process(double input) const override{
        return input+offset_;
    }
};

int main(){

    // used to make a random function / arguments
    // to prevent gcc from being overly clever
    std::default_random_engine generator;
    auto randint = std::bind(std::uniform_int_distribution<int>(0,1),std::ref(generator));
    auto randdouble = std::bind(std::normal_distribution<double>(0.0,1.0),std::ref(generator));

    // make a complex Pipeline
    std::unique_ptr<Pipeline> pipe(new Scale(randdouble()));
    for(unsigned i=0;i<100;++i){
        if(randint()) pipe=std::move(std::unique_ptr<Pipeline>(new Scale(std::move(pipe),randdouble())));
        else pipe=std::move(std::unique_ptr<Pipeline>(new Offset(std::move(pipe),randdouble())));
    }

    // make a std::function from pipe
    Pipeline::FnSig fun(pipe->to_function());   

    double bla=0.0;
    for(unsigned i=0; i<100000; ++i){
#ifdef USE_FUNCTION
        // takes 110 ms on average
        bla+=fun(bla);
#else
        // takes 60 ms on average
        bla+=pipe->operator()(bla);
#endif
    }   
    std::cout << bla << std::endl;
}

---

Benchmark

Using pipe:

g++ -std=gnu++11 sscce.cpp -march=native -O3
sudo nice -3 /usr/bin/time ./a.out
-> 60 ms

Using fun:

g++ -DUSE_FUNCTION -std=gnu++11 sscce.cpp -march=native -O3
sudo nice -3 /usr/bin/time ./a.out
-> 110 ms

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18608888/c11-stdfunction-slower-than-virtual-calls

Answer 1

As Sebastian Redl's answer says, your "alternative" to virtual functions adds several layers of indirection through dynamically bound functions (either virtual, or through function pointers, depending on the std::function implementation) and then it still calls the virtual Pipeline::process(double) function anyway!

This modification makes it significantly faster, by removing one layer of std::function indirection and preventing the call to Derived::process being virtual:

FnSig to_function() const override {
    FnSig fun;
    auto derived_this = static_cast<const Derived*>(this);
    if (Pipeline::wrappee) {
        FnSig wrapfun = Pipeline::wrappee->to_function();
        fun = [=](double input){
            return derived_this->Derived::process(wrapfun(input));
        };
    } else {
        fun = [=](double input){
            return derived_this->Derived::process(input);
        };
    }
    return fun;
}

There's still more work being done here than in the virtual function version though.