What is std::move(), and when should it be used?

"What is it?" and "What does it do?" has been explained above.

I will give a example of "when it should be used".

For example, we have a class with lots of resource like big array in it.

class ResHeavy{ //  ResHeavy means heavy resource
    public:
        ResHeavy(int len=10):_upInt(new int[len]),_len(len){
            cout<<"default ctor"<<endl;
        }

        ResHeavy(const ResHeavy& rhs):_upInt(new int[rhs._len]),_len(rhs._len){
            cout<<"copy ctor"<<endl;
        }

        ResHeavy& operator=(const ResHeavy& rhs){
            _upInt.reset(new int[rhs._len]);
            _len = rhs._len;
            cout<<"operator= ctor"<<endl;
        }

        ResHeavy(ResHeavy&& rhs){
            _upInt = std::move(rhs._upInt);
            _len = rhs._len;
            rhs._len = 0;
            cout<<"move ctor"<<endl;
        }

    // check array valid
    bool is_up_valid(){
        return _upInt != nullptr;
    }

    private:
        std::unique_ptr<int[]> _upInt; // heavy array resource
        int _len; // length of int array
};

Test code:

void test_std_move2(){
    ResHeavy rh; // only one int[]
    // operator rh

    // after some operator of rh, it becomes no-use
    // transform it to other object
    ResHeavy rh2 = std::move(rh); // rh becomes invalid

    // show rh, rh2 it valid
    if(rh.is_up_valid())
        cout<<"rh valid"<<endl;
    else
        cout<<"rh invalid"<<endl;

    if(rh2.is_up_valid())
        cout<<"rh2 valid"<<endl;
    else
        cout<<"rh2 invalid"<<endl;

    // new ResHeavy object, created by copy ctor
    ResHeavy rh3(rh2);  // two copy of int[]

    if(rh3.is_up_valid())
        cout<<"rh3 valid"<<endl;
    else
        cout<<"rh3 invalid"<<endl;
}

output as below:

default ctor
move ctor
rh invalid
rh2 valid
copy ctor
rh3 valid

We can see that std::move with move constructor makes transform resource easily.

Where else is std::move useful?

std::move can also be useful when sorting an array of elements. Many sorting algorithms (such as selection sort and bubble sort) work by swapping pairs of elements. Previously, we’ve had to resort to copy-semantics to do the swapping. Now we can use move semantics, which is more efficient.

It can also be useful if we want to move the contents managed by one smart pointer to another.

Cited:

• https://www.learncpp.com/cpp-tutorial/15-4-stdmove/

std::move itself does nothing rather than a static_cast. According to cppreference.com

It is exactly equivalent to a static_cast to an rvalue reference type.

Thus, it depends on the type of the variable you assign to after the move, if the type has constructors or assign operators that takes a rvalue parameter, it may or may not steal the content of the original variable, so, it may leave the original variable to be in an unspecified state:

Unless otherwise specified, all standard library objects that have been moved from being placed in a valid but unspecified state.

Because there is no special move constructor or move assign operator for built-in literal types such as integers and raw pointers, so, it will be just a simple copy for these types.

Here is a full example, using std::move for a (simple) custom vector

Expected output:

 c: [10][11]
 copy ctor called
 copy of c: [10][11]
 move ctor called
 moved c: [10][11]

Compile as:

  g++ -std=c++2a -O2 -Wall -pedantic foo.cpp

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>

template<class T> class MyVector {
private:
    T *data;
    size_t maxlen;
    size_t currlen;
public:
    MyVector<T> () : data (nullptr), maxlen(0), currlen(0) { }
    MyVector<T> (int maxlen) : data (new T [maxlen]), maxlen(maxlen), currlen(0) { }

    MyVector<T> (const MyVector& o) {
        std::cout << "copy ctor called" << std::endl;
        data = new T [o.maxlen];
        maxlen = o.maxlen;
        currlen = o.currlen;
        std::copy(o.data, o.data + o.maxlen, data);
    }

    MyVector<T> (const MyVector<T>&& o) {
        std::cout << "move ctor called" << std::endl;
        data = o.data;
        maxlen = o.maxlen;
        currlen = o.currlen;
    }

    void push_back (const T& i) {
        if (currlen >= maxlen) {
            maxlen *= 2;
            auto newdata = new T [maxlen];
            std::copy(data, data + currlen, newdata);
            if (data) {
                delete[] data;
            }
            data = newdata;
        }
        data[currlen++] = i;
    }

    friend std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream &os, const MyVector<T>& o) {
        auto s = o.data;
        auto e = o.data + o.currlen;;
        while (s < e) {
            os << "[" << *s << "]";
            s++;
        }
        return os;
    }
};

int main() {
    auto c = new MyVector<int>(1);
    c->push_back(10);
    c->push_back(11);
    std::cout << "c: " << *c << std::endl;
    auto d = *c;
    std::cout << "copy of c: " << d << std::endl;
    auto e = std::move(*c);
    delete c;
    std::cout << "moved c: " << e << std::endl;
}