Efficient C++ Performance Programming Techniques

Key Points

• Object definitions trigger silent execution in the form of object constructors and destructors. We call it “silent execution” as opposed to “silent overhead” because object construction and destruction are not usually overhead. If the computations performed by the constructor and destructor are always necessary, then they would be considered efficient code (inlining would alleviate the cost of call and return overhead). As we have seen, constructors and destructors do not always have such “pure” characteristics, and they can create significant overhead. In some situations, computations performed by the constructor (and/or destructor) are left unused. We should also point out that this is more of a design issue than a C++ language issue. ...