I've written the code posted below. I was hoping to get to move the content of a vector between instances of LargeClass
. The move constructor is being used, but instead of moving I get copies only.
Why doesn't the move semantics work as expected here?
Code:
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
class LargeClass
{
public:
explicit LargeClass (void): numbers(20, 10)
{
}
LargeClass (const LargeClass &rhs): numbers(rhs.numbers)
{
std::cout << "Using LargeClass copy constructor" << '\n';
}
LargeClass (const LargeClass &&rhs): numbers(std::move(rhs.numbers))
{
std::cout << "Using LargeClass move constructor" << '\n';
}
const int* getNumbersAddress(void) const
{
return (numbers.data());
}
private:
std::vector<int> numbers;
};
int main()
{
LargeClass l1;
std::cout << "l1 vector address: " << l1.getNumbersAddress() << '\n';
LargeClass l2(l1);
std::cout << "l1 vector address: " << l1.getNumbersAddress() << '\n';
std::cout << "l2 vector address: " << l2.getNumbersAddress() << '\n';
LargeClass l3 = std::move(l2);
std::cout << "l1 vector address: " << l1.getNumbersAddress() << '\n';
std::cout << "l2 vector address: " << l2.getNumbersAddress() << '\n';
std::cout << "l3 vector address: " << l3.getNumbersAddress() << '\n';
return 0;
}
Possible output:
l1 vector address: 0x18ce010
Using LargeClass copy constructor
l1 vector address: 0x18ce010
l2 vector address: 0x18ce070
Using LargeClass move constructor
l1 vector address: 0x18ce010
l2 vector address: 0x18ce070
l3 vector address: 0x18ce0d0
The rvalue references don't make sense in their const
forms because you want to modify them (you want to "move" them ). Objects created as const
in C++ are in read-only memory, from which grabbing/modifying internal resources won't be possible.
The syntax for move constructor normally should be
class_name ( class_name && )
So use :
LargeClass ( LargeClass&& rhs )