Re: [eigen] Expression templates and CwiseBinaryOp

Hi Gaël,

thank you very much for your answer and the link to your slides!

Cédric

De: "Gael Guennebaud" <gael.guennebaud@xxxxxxxxx>
À: "eigen" <eigen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Envoyé: Mercredi 3 Août 2016 23:24:34
Objet: Re: [eigen] _expression_ templates and CwiseBinaryOp

Hi,

I answered your question there: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38749492/_expression_-templates-in-eigen

you can also find some details there : http://downloads.tuxfamily.org/eigen/eigen_CGLibs_Giugno_Pisa_2013.pdf, starting from slide 40.

gael

On Wed, Aug 3, 2016 at 3:12 PM, Cedric Doucet <cedric.doucet@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello,

I would like to understand how _expression_ templates work in Eigen.
I understood that the sum of two dynamical double vectors is performed by something which looks like this :

CwiseBinaryOp< internal::scalar_sum_op<double>, VectorXd const, VectorXd const > operator+(VectorXd const & lhs, VectorXd const & rhs);

I also understood how the difference of two vectors is implemented.

I have two questions.

1. How does the product of a vector by a scalar work?

I have noticed that CwiseBinaryOp< internal::scalar_product_op<double>, VectorXd const, VectorXd const > exists but I have the feeling that it is only designed to perform componentwise operations between two vectors.
Does it mean that the product of a vector by a scalar correspond to a unary operator, say CwiseUnaryOp< internal::scalar_product_op<double>, VectorXd const, VectorXd const >?

2. Can template expressions be built from mixed operations?

For example, in an _expression_ like x = u + 2 * v - w, is it true that these operations are performed in a nested way like this?

a. v-w leads to the construction of an instance of CwiseBinaryOp< internal::scalar_difference_op<double>, VectorXd const, VectorXd const > (alias E1)
b. 2 * v leads to the construction of an instance of CwiseUnaryOp< internal::scalar_product_op<double>, VectorXd const > (alias E2)
c. 2 * v + v- w leads to the construction of an instance of CwiseBinaryOp< internal::scalar_sum_op<double>, E1 const, E2 const > (alias E3)
d. u + 2 * v - w leads to the construction of an instance of CwiseBinaryOp< internal::scalar_sum_op<double>, VectorXd const, E3 const > (alias E4)
e. x = u + 2 * v -w calls the constructor VectorXd(E4 const &), or the overloading VectorXd & operator=(E4 const &), which evaluate the tree built from the previous steps.

Thank you for your help!

Cédric