17.5 — std::string assignment and swapping

• These functions assign values of various types to the string.
• These functions return *this so they can be “chained”.
• Note that there is no assign() function that takes a single char.

Sample code:

string sString;

// Assign a string value
sString = string("One");
cout << sString << endl;

const string sTwo("Two");
sString.assign(sTwo);
cout << sString << endl;

// Assign a C-style string
sString = "Three";
cout << sString << endl;

sString.assign("Four");
cout << sString << endl;

// Assign a char
sString = '5';
cout << sString << endl;

// Chain assignment
string sOther;
sString = sOther = "Six";
cout << sString << " " << sOther << endl;

Output:

One
Two
Three
Four
5
Six Six

• Assigns a substring of str, starting from index, and of length len
• Throws an out_of_range exception if the index is out of bounds
• Returns *this so it can be “chained”.

Sample code:

const string sSource("abcdefg");
string sDest;

sDest.assign(sSource, 2, 4); // assign a substring of source from index 2 of length 4
cout << sDest << endl;

Output:

cdef

• Assigns len characters from the C-style array chars
• Ignores special characters (including ‘\0′)
• Throws an length_error exception if the result exceeds the maximum number of characters
• Returns *this so it can be “chained”.

Sample code:

string sDest;

sDest.assign("abcdefg", 4);
cout << sDest << endl;

Output:

abcd

This function is potentially dangerous and it’s use is not recommended.

• Assigns len occurrences of the character c
• Throws an length_error exception if the result exceeds the maximum number of characters
• Returns *this so it can be “chained”.

Sample code:

string sDest;

sDest.assign(4, 'g');
cout << sDest << endl;

Output:

gggg

• Both functions swap the value of the two strings. The member function swaps *this and str, the global function swaps str1 and str2.
• These functions are efficient and should be used instead of assignments to perform a string swap.

Sample code:

string sStr1("red");
string sStr2("blue);

cout << sStr1 << " " << sStr2 << endl;
swap(sStr1, sStr2);
cout << sStr1 << " " << sStr2 << endl;
sStr1.swap(sStr2);
cout << sStr1 << " " << sStr2 << endl;

Output:

red blue
blue red
red blue