Re: member variable of STL string class

From:
"Alf P. Steinbach" <alfps@start.no>
Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.vc.language
Date:
Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:11:29 +0200
Message-ID:
<EeGdnbgw2tw5MS7VnZ2dnUVZ_vudnZ2d@posted.comnet>
* George:

Thanks Norbert,

Because of the word "union" that wraps _Buf and _Ptr in the basic_sring class
definition?


I agree with your above points that _Buf and _Ptr are stored in an union,
means at one time, only one of them is used normally. But does it related to
make a conclusion that my below statement is wrong? Could you clarify please?

--------------------
I think is _Buf is used to hold small sized content, and _Ptr is used to
hold larger sizes content. Small sized content is on stack and larger sized
content is on heap.
--------------------


Assuming that's what you have it's a small string optimization.

However, you should not be concerned with the internal implementation.

You're still struggling with understanding e.g. rules for reference binding:
concentrate on that, the language basics, and build up from a solid foundation
instead of learning by rote one tidbit here and one unrelated one over there.

Cheers & hth.,

- Alf

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