Intel® oneAPI Threading Building Blocks Developer Guide and API Reference
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Visible to Intel only — GUID: GUID-022D0FC5-1C6A-4F68-8EBF-26647A04DB59
Lambda Expressions
C++11 lambda expressions make the Intel® oneAPI Threading Building Blocks (oneTBB) parallel_for much easier to use. A lambda expression lets the compiler do the tedious work of creating a function object.
Below is the example from the previous section, rewritten with a lambda expression. The lambda expression, replaces both the declaration and construction of function object ApplyFoo in the example of the previous section.
#include "oneapi/tbb.h"
using namespace oneapi::tbb;
void ParallelApplyFoo( float* a, size_t n ) {
parallel_for( blocked_range<size_t>(0,n),
[=](const blocked_range<size_t>& r) {
for(size_t i=r.begin(); i!=r.end(); ++i)
Foo(a[i]);
}
);
}
The [=] introduces the lambda expression. The expression creates a function object very similar to ApplyFoo. When local variables like a and n are declared outside the lambda expression, but used inside it, they are “captured” as fields inside the function object. The [=] specifies that capture is by value. Writing [&] instead would capture the values by reference. After the [=] is the parameter list and definition for the operator() of the generated function object. The compiler documentation says more about lambda expressions and other implemented C++11 features. It is worth reading more complete descriptions of lambda expressions than can fit here, because lambda expressions are a powerful feature for using template libraries in general.
C++11 support is off by default in the compiler. The following table shows the option for turning it on.
Environment |
Intel® C++ Compiler Classic |
Intel® oneAPI DPC++/C++ Compiler |
|---|---|---|
Windows* OS systems |
icl /Qstd=c++11 foo.cpp |
icx /Qstd=c++11 foo.cpp |
Linux* OS systems |
icc -std=c++11 foo.cpp |
icx -std=c++11 foo.cpp |
For further compactness, oneTBB has a form of parallel_for expressly for parallel looping over a consecutive range of integers. The expression parallel_for(first,last,step,f) is like writing for(auto i=first; i<last; i+=step)f(i) except that each f(i) can be evaluated in parallel if resources permit. The step parameter is optional. Here is the previous example rewritten in the compact form:
#include "oneapi/tbb.h"
using namespace oneapi::tbb;
#pragma warning(disable: 588)
void ParallelApplyFoo(float a[], size_t n) {
parallel_for(size_t(0), n, [=](size_t i) {Foo(a[i]);});
}
The compact form supports only unidimensional iteration spaces of integers and the automatic chunking feature detailed on the following section.