cstring

cstring is a C++ immutable C-string (aka const char array) with reference counting.

It is a pointer to chars where the pointed memory is prefixed by the reference counter (4 bytes) and the string length (4 bytes).

Features:

• It is a const char * having sizeof(cstring) = 8.
• Behaves like a std::string.
• Integrated reference counting reduces the number of indirections.
• Includes string length, harnessing the full power of string_view.
• Easy debug (object points to string content).
• Additional utility functions (contains(), trim(), etc).
• A comparator (cstring_compare) is provided for the most common types.

Main drawbacks:

• Immutable content (the string content cannot be changed).
• 8 additional bytes are allocated (reference counter + length + eventual padding).
• No Small String Optimization (SSO).
• String length and reference counter are limited to 4'294'967'295.
• Stateful allocators (sizeof(allocator) > 0) are not supported.

Usage

Drop cstring.hpp into your project and start using cstring.

Read the cstring-example.cpp file to see how to use it.

#include "cstring.hpp"
...
// just use it like a const std::string
gto::cstring str1 = "hello world!"
std::cout << "Length of '" << str << "' is " << str.length() << std::endl;

Testing

# example
make example

# unit tests
make tests

# code coverage
make coverage
firefox coverage/index.html &

Contributors

Name	Contribution
Gerard Torrent	Initial work Code maintainer
Matthieu M.	Code review

License

This project is licensed under the GNU LGPL v3 License - see the LICENSE file for details.