WebAssembly / WebAssembly/binaryen

[New Optimization Proposal] Propagate conditional result to branch / switch arms

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Dominant language
WebAssembly
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Description

Example:

if (x == 5) {
   return x + 1;
} else {
   return x - 1;
}

if (y == true) { // maxBits(y) <= 1
   return y | x; // maxBits(x) <= 1
} else {
   return y ^ x;
}

if (z < 5) {
   return z >= 5;
}

could be optimize to:

if (x == 5) {
   return 6; // 5 + 1
} else {
   return x - 1;
}

if (y == true) {
   return true; // we know y == true, so true | bool(x)  ->  true
} else {
   return x; // here y always `false` so `false ^ x` -> x
}

if (z < 5) {
   return false;
}

and same for br tables.

WDYT?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by examining Binaryen's existing optimization paths for branch and switch arms, including br_table handling. Compare their behavior with the conditional-result examples in the issue and determine the intended transformations. Done means the proposed propagation is implemented consistently for the shown if/else and br_table cases, with tests demonstrating the optimized results.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp, wasm
Domain
compilers, performance
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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