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diff --git a/eigen/doc/Pitfalls.dox b/eigen/doc/Pitfalls.dox new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf42eff --- /dev/null +++ b/eigen/doc/Pitfalls.dox @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +namespace Eigen { + +/** \page TopicPitfalls Common pitfalls + +\section TopicPitfalls_template_keyword Compilation error with template methods + +See this \link TopicTemplateKeyword page \endlink. + +\section TopicPitfalls_auto_keyword C++11 and the auto keyword + +In short: do not use the auto keywords with Eigen's expressions, unless you are 100% sure about what you are doing. In particular, do not use the auto keyword as a replacement for a Matrix<> type. Here is an example: + +\code +MatrixXd A, B; +auto C = A*B; +for(...) { ... w = C * v; ...} +\endcode + +In this example, the type of C is not a MatrixXd but an abstract expression representing a matrix product and storing references to A and B. Therefore, the product of A*B will be carried out multiple times, once per iteration of the for loop. Moreover, if the coefficients of A or B change during the iteration, then C will evaluate to different values. + +Here is another example leading to a segfault: +\code +auto C = ((A+B).eval()).transpose(); +// do something with C +\endcode +The problem is that eval() returns a temporary object (in this case a MatrixXd) which is then referenced by the Transpose<> expression. However, this temporary is deleted right after the first line, and there the C expression reference a dead object. The same issue might occur when sub expressions are automatically evaluated by Eigen as in the following example: +\code +VectorXd u, v; +auto C = u + (A*v).normalized(); +// do something with C +\endcode +where the normalized() method has to evaluate the expensive product A*v to avoid evaluating it twice. On the other hand, the following example is perfectly fine: +\code +auto C = (u + (A*v).normalized()).eval(); +\endcode +In this case, C will be a regular VectorXd object. +*/ +} |