Will the c++ compiler optimize away unused return value?

Question

If I have a function that returns an object, but this return value is never used by the caller, will the compiler optimize away the copy? (Possibly an always/sometimes/never

Answer 1

They most likely will if the optimization level causes them to inline the code. If not, they would have to generate two different translations of the same code to make it work, which could open up a lot of edge case problems.