<p>If I want to call <code>Bar()</code> instead of <code>Foo()</code>, does <code>Bar()</code> return me a copy (additional overhead) of what Foo() returns, or it returns the same object which <code>Foo()</code> places on the temporary stack?</p>

<pre><code>vector&lt;int&gt; Foo(){  
    vector&lt;int&gt; result;  
    result.push_back(1);  
    return result;  
}  
vector&lt;int&gt; Bar(){  
    return Foo();  
}
</code></pre>

Normally it returns a copy of the returned
```
vector<int>
```
. However this highly depends on the optimization done by the compiler. See the following discussion.
Debug Build
```
```
vector<int> Foo(){  
004118D0  push        ebp  
004118D1  mov         ebp,esp 
004118D3  push        0FFFFFFFFh 
004118D5  push        offset __ehhandler$?Foo@@YA?AV?$vector@HV?$allocator@H@std@@@std@@XZ (419207h) 
004118DA  mov         eax,dword ptr fs:[00000000h] 
004118E0  push        eax  
004118E1  sub         esp,0F4h 
004118E7  push        ebx  
004118E8  push        esi  
004118E9  push        edi  
004118EA  lea         edi,[ebp-100h] 
004118F0  mov         ecx,3Dh 
004118F5  mov         eax,0CCCCCCCCh 
004118FA  rep stos    dword ptr es:[edi] 
004118FC  mov         eax,dword ptr [___security_cookie (41E098h)] 
00411901  xor         eax,ebp 
00411903  push        eax  
00411904  lea         eax,[ebp-0Ch] 
00411907  mov         dword ptr fs:[00000000h],eax 
0041190D  mov         dword ptr [ebp-0F0h],0 
    vector<int> result;  
00411917  lea         ecx,[ebp-24h] 
0041191A  call        std::vector<int,std::allocator<int> >::vector<int,std::allocator<int> > (411050h) 
0041191F  mov         dword ptr [ebp-4],1 
    result.push_back(1);  
00411926  mov         dword ptr [ebp-0FCh],1 
00411930  lea         eax,[ebp-0FCh] 
00411936  push        eax  
00411937  lea         ecx,[ebp-24h] 
0041193A  call        std::vector<int,std::allocator<int> >::push_back (41144Ch) 
    return result;  
0041193F  lea         eax,[ebp-24h] 
00411942  push        eax  
00411943  mov         ecx,dword ptr [ebp+8] 
00411946  call        std::vector<int,std::allocator<int> >::vector<int,std::allocator<int> > (41104Bh) 
0041194B  mov         ecx,dword ptr [ebp-0F0h] 
00411951  or          ecx,1 
00411954  mov         dword ptr [ebp-0F0h],ecx 
0041195A  mov         byte ptr [ebp-4],0 
0041195E  lea         ecx,[ebp-24h] 
00411961  call        std::vector<int,std::allocator<int> >::~vector<int,std::allocator<int> > (411415h) 
00411966  mov         eax,dword ptr [ebp+8] 
}
```
```
Here we can see that for
```
vector<int> result;
```
a new object is created on the stack at
```
[ebp-24h]
```
```
```
00411917  lea         ecx,[ebp-24h] 
0041191A  call        std::vector<int,std::allocator<int> >::vector<int,std::allocator<int> > (411050h)
```
```
When we get to
```
return result;
```
a new copy is created in storage allocated by the caller at
```
[ebp+8]
```
```
```
00411943  mov         ecx,dword ptr [ebp+8] 
00411946  call        std::vector<int,std::allocator<int> >::vector<int,std::allocator<int> > (41104Bh)
```
```
And the destructor is called for the local parameter
```
vector<int> result
```
at
```
[ebp-24h]
```
```
```
0041195E  lea         ecx,[ebp-24h] 
00411961  call        std::vector<int,std::allocator<int> >::~vector<int,std::allocator<int> > (411415h)
```
```
Release Build
```
```
vector<int> Foo(){  
00401110  push        0FFFFFFFFh 
00401112  push        offset __ehhandler$?Foo@@YA?AV?$vector@HV?$allocator@H@std@@@std@@XZ (401F89h) 
00401117  mov         eax,dword ptr fs:[00000000h] 
0040111D  push        eax  
0040111E  sub         esp,14h 
00401121  push        esi  
00401122  mov         eax,dword ptr [___security_cookie (403018h)] 
00401127  xor         eax,esp 
00401129  push        eax  
0040112A  lea         eax,[esp+1Ch] 
0040112E  mov         dword ptr fs:[00000000h],eax 
00401134  mov         esi,dword ptr [esp+2Ch] 
00401138  xor         eax,eax 
0040113A  mov         dword ptr [esp+8],eax 
    vector<int> result;  
0040113E  mov         dword ptr [esi+4],eax 
00401141  mov         dword ptr [esi+8],eax 
00401144  mov         dword ptr [esi+0Ch],eax 
    result.push_back(1);  
    return result;  
00401147  push        eax  
00401148  mov         dword ptr [esp+28h],eax 
0040114C  mov         ecx,1 
00401151  push        esi  
00401152  lea         eax,[esp+14h] 
00401156  mov         dword ptr [esp+10h],ecx 
0040115A  mov         dword ptr [esp+14h],ecx 
0040115E  push        eax  
0040115F  lea         ecx,[esp+1Ch] 
00401163  push        ecx  
00401164  mov         eax,esi 
00401166  call        std::vector<int,std::allocator<int> >::insert (401200h) 
0040116B  mov         eax,esi 
}  
0040116D  mov         ecx,dword ptr [esp+1Ch] 
00401171  mov         dword ptr fs:[0],ecx 
00401178  pop         ecx  
00401179  pop         esi  
0040117A  add         esp,20h 
0040117D  ret
```
```
The line
```
vector<int> result
```
does not call the vector allocator because it is done at call site in
```
Bar
```
. The optimization makes no copy of the result from Foo.