Switch codegen.
claptrap
clap at trap.com
Mon Aug 7 20:22:06 UTC 2023
Given code like this...
```d
const int x;
while(...)
{
switch (x)
{
case 0: whatever; break;
case 1: whatever; break;
case 2: whatever; break;
case 3: whatever; break;
case 4: whatever; break;
}
}
```
It generates a jump table if there's at least 4 or 5 cases, but
at the start of the switch it generates 6 instructions (x64),
check the bounds, lookup / calc the destination, and the actual
jump. Like this...
```d
lea r13, [rip + .LJTI0_0]
cmp r14d, 7
ja .LBB0_11
movsxd rax, dword ptr [r13 + 4*r12]
add rax, r13
jmp rax
```
So the point is if the switch is in a loop and x is constant,
most of that could be done ahead, outside the loop. It could
actually be reduced to a single indirect jump inside the loop. It
seems there is a LLVM IR instruction that may be useful for this,
"indirectbr", it's a sort of computed goto.
https://llvm.org/docs/LangRef.html#indirectbr-instruction
Is this at all feasible? If so how would this be done? In the
actual IR codegen or as an optimization pass? I willing to do the
work if it's possible.
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