How Does `std::function` Manage Memory and Callable Objects?

std::function: Implementation and Memory Management

The std::function class serves as a generic wrapper for callable objects, enabling the storage and invocation of any callable type. While lambda expressions are often implemented as classes with function call operators, their size can vary significantly depending on the number of referenced variables.

In contrast, std::function must maintain a fixed size while accommodating callables of various kinds, including lambdas. Its implementation relies on type erasure, which involves creating a base class representing callable entities. For each specific callable type used with std::function, a derived class is created and instantiated dynamically.

For example, consider a simplified implementation of std::function for double-to-int functions:

struct callable_base {
   virtual int operator()(double d) = 0;
   virtual ~callable_base() {}
};
template<typename F>
struct callable : callable_base {
   F functor;
   callable(F functor) : functor(functor) {}
   int operator()(double d) { return functor(d); }
};

The std::function object would contain a unique_ptr to the base class. When a std::function is constructed with a specific callable, a derived class is created and instantiated on the heap. The std::function object itself remains of fixed size, while the memory for the callable object is allocated dynamically.

Regarding copy semantics, each std::function object maintains its own copy of the callable entity. This is evident from the following test:

fun f1 = [=]() mutable { std::cout << value++ << '\n' };
fun f2 = f1;
f1();
f2();
f3();

The output of the program demonstrates that f2 and f3 each maintain separate callable objects, resulting in different incremented values being printed. Therefore, std::function manages memory for its callable objects while ensuring that copies of std::function objects maintain their own independent callable entities.

The above is the detailed content of How Does `std::function` Manage Memory and Callable Objects?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!