Re: Bypass virtual function call when calling direcltly with a object/reference of that type?

Hi all,

here's the situation, just for demo:

struct Base
{
    virtual void f() = 0;
};

struct A: Base
{
    virtual void f();
};

template<class T>
inline
T& by_ref(T& t)
{
    return t;
}

struct wrappedA
{
    A _a;

    void f(){ _a.f(); }
};

-------------------------------
Here we have types(Base, A, wrappedA) and an inline function(by_ref)
which returns reference;
Base has a virtual member function 'f' which A overrides, and what f
does does not matter.

Now consider:

A a;
wrappedA ra;
Base* p = &a;

Followings are 5 ways invoking f():
[1]a.f();
[2]by_ref(a).f();
[3]ra.f();
[4]by_ref(ra).f();
[5]p->f();

I think in cases [1],[2],[3],[4], compiler has the chance to call
A::f() directly, not through vtable.
I gave this simple test through g++3.4.5, g++4.5, and clang 2.9 (all
with -O3) on Windows, and it seems like to me that:
1) g++3.4.5 direct call for : [1],[3],[4]; virtual call for: [2],[5]
2) g++4.5 direct call for : [1],[2],[3],[4] ([2] somewhat faster
than [1]); virtual call for: [5]
3)clang 2.9 direct call for : [1]; virtual call for: [2],[3],[4],[5]

I guess so by the processing time they spent.

As I have to get object indirectly by reference(like in [2]), anyway
guaranteed to eliminate the virtual overhead?
Or just a compiler optimization issue?