Performance of dynamic_cast?

Question

Before reading the question:
This question is not about how useful it is to use dynamic_cast. Its just about its performance.

I've recently developed a design where dynamic_cast is used a lot.
When discussing it with co-workers almost everyone says that dynamic_cast shouldn't be used because of its bad performance (these are co-workers which have different backgrounds and in some cases do not know each other. I'm working in a huge company)

I decided to test the performance of this method instead of just believing them.

The following code was used:

ptime firstValue( microsec_clock::local_time() );

ChildObject* castedObject = dynamic_cast<ChildObject*>(parentObject);

ptime secondValue( microsec_clock::local_time() );
time_duration diff = secondValue - firstValue;
std::cout << "Cast1 lasts:\t" << diff.fractional_seconds() << " microsec" << std::endl;

The above code uses methods from boost::date_time on Linux to get usable values.
I've done 3 dynamic_cast in one execution, the code for measuring them is the same.

The results of 1 execution were the following:
Cast1 lasts: 74 microsec
Cast2 lasts: 2 microsec
Cast3 lasts: 1 microsec

The first cast always took 74-111 microsec, the following casts in the same execution took 1-3 microsec.

So finally my questions:
Is dynamic_cast really performing bad?
According to the testresults its not. Is my testcode correct?
Why do so much developers think that it is slow if it isn't?

Answer 1

Firstly, you need to measure the performance over a lot more than just a few iterations, as your results will be dominated by the resolution of the timer. Try e.g. 1 million+, in order to build up a representative picture. Also, this result is meaningless unless you compare it against something, i.e. doing the equivalent but without the dynamic casting.

Secondly, you need to ensure the compiler isn't giving you false results by optimising away multiple dynamic casts on the same pointer (so use a loop, but use a different input pointer each time).

Dynamic casting will be slower, because it needs to access the RTTI (run-time type information) table for the object, and check that the cast is valid. Then, in order to use it properly, you will need to add error-handling code that checks whether the returned pointer is NULL. All of this takes up cycles.

I know you didn't want to talk about this, but "a design where dynamic_cast is used a lot" is probably an indicator that you're doing something wrong...