Get size of a std::string's string in bytes

c++ string multibyte
小太郎 picture 小太郎 · Jun 4, 2011 · Viewed 31.3k times · Source

I would like to get the bytes a std::string's string occupies in memory, not the number of characters. The string contains a multibyte string. Would std::string::size() do this for me?

EDIT: Also, does size() also include the terminating NULL?

Answer

Lukáš Lalinský picture Lukáš Lalinský · Jun 4, 2011

std::string operates on bytes, not on Unicode characters, so std::string::size() will indeed return the size of the data in bytes (without the overhead that std::string needs to store the data, of course).

No, std::string stores only the data you tell it to store (it does not need the trailing NULL character). So it will not be included in the size, unless you explicitly create a string with a trailing NULL character.

Related questions

Easiest way to convert int to string in C++

What is the easiest way to convert from int to equivalent string in C++. I am aware of two methods. Is there any easier way? (1) int a = 10; char *intStr = itoa(a); string str = string(intStr); (2) int a = 10; stringstream ss; ss &…

Read More
How do I iterate over the words of a string?

I'm trying to iterate over the words of a string. The string can be assumed to be composed of words separated by whitespace. Note that I'm not interested in C string functions or that kind of character manipulation/access. Also, …

Read More
How can I convert a std::string to int?

Just have a quick question. I've looked around the internet quite a bit and I've found a few solutions but none of them have worked yet. Looking at converting a string to an int and I don't mean ASCII codes. …

Read More