Inside STL: The string -- Raymond Chen

By Blog Staff | Sep 4, 2023 03:07 PM | Tags: None

You might think that a std::string (and all of its friends in the std::basic_string family) are basically a vector of characters internally. But strings are organized differently due to specific optimizations permitted for strings but not for vectors.

Inside STL: The string

By Raymond Chen

From the article:

The starting point for a std::basic_string is this:¹

template<typename T>
struct basic_string
{
    T* ptr;
    size_t size;
    size_t capacity;
};

The ptr is a pointer to the beginning of the string contents.

The size is the number of characters in the string, not including the null terminator.

The capacity is the string capacity, not including the null terminator.

The picture for this simplified version is as follows:

Inside STL: The vector -- Raymond Chen

By Blog Staff | Aug 31, 2023 03:01 PM | Tags: None

The C++ language comes with a standard library, and although implementations are welcome to implement the library types in whatever manner they choose, they are constraints imposed by the standard which often force one of a small number of possible implementations.

Inside STL: The vector

By Raymond Chen

The std::vector is one of those types which is constrained to the point that there’s really only one viable implementation.

Internally, a std::vector basically looks like this:

template<typename T>
struct vector
{
    T* first;
    T* last;
    T* end;
};

The first is a pointer to the beginning of a single memory allocation that holds the vector contents.

The last is a pointer one past the end of the last valid vector element.

The end is a pointer one past the end of the last allocated memory for the vector.

The picture for this is as follows:

Inside STL: The Pair and The Compressed Pair -- Raymond Chen

By Blog Staff | Aug 29, 2023 02:57 PM | Tags: None

The C++ language comes with a standard library. When you’re debugging your C++ code, you may have to go digging inside the implementation to extract information from crash dumps. This mini-series is going to look at how various C++ standard library types are implemented by the three major implementations (clang, gcc, and msvc).

Inside STL: The Pair and The Compressed Pair

By Raymond Chen

From the article:

The C++ language comes with a standard library. When you’re debugging your C++ code, you may have to go digging inside the implementation to extract information from crash dumps. This mini-series is going to look at how various C++ standard library types are implemented by the three major implementations (clang, gcc, and msvc).

We’ll start with the lowly std::pair. Its definition is quite simple.

template<typename T1, typename T2>
struct pair
{
    T1 first;
    T2 second;
};

The names of the members of std::pair are required by the C++ language standard, so you don’t see any variation here. Here’s how it looks in the Windows debugger:

0:000> ?? t
struct std::pair<int,int>
   +0x000 first            : 0n42
   +0x004 second           : 0n99

Understanding Ranges Views and View Adaptors Objects in C++20/C++23 -- Bartlomiej Filipek

By Blog Staff | Aug 27, 2023 02:50 PM | Tags: None

In this article, we’d shed some light on the implementation of ranges::reverse_view and std::views::reverse. We’ll compare them to understand the differences between views and their adaptor objects.

Understanding Ranges Views and View Adaptors Objects in C++20/C++23

By Bartlomiej Filipek

From the article:

Let’s look at an example to understand how these views work. Assume we have a range r of integers from 1 to 5. When we apply std::views::reverse to r, it creates a view representing the elements of r in the reverse order.

#include <ranges> 
#include <vector> 
#include <iostream>  

int main() {
  std::vector<int> r = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};  
  auto reversed = r | std::views::reverse;  
  for (auto i : reversed)  
     std::cout << i << " ";   

  // same as:  
  for (auto i : r | std::views::reverse)  
     std::cout << i << " "; 
}

Perfect Forwarding Forwards Objects Not Braced Things Trying To Become Objects -- Raymond Chen

By Blog Staff | Aug 25, 2023 02:43 PM | Tags: None

In C++, perfect forwarding is the act of passing a function’s parameters to another function while preserving its reference category. It is commonly used by wrapper methods that want to pass their parameters through to another function, often a constructor.

Perfect Forwarding Forwards Objects, Not Braced Things That Are Trying To Become Objects

By Raymond Chen

From the article:

In C++, perfect forwarding is the act of passing a function’s parameters to another function while preserving its reference category. It is commonly used by wrapper methods that want to pass their parameters through to another function, often a constructor.

template<typename T, typename... Args>
std::unique_ptr<T> make_unique(Args&&... args)
{
    return std::unique_ptr<T>(
        new T(std::forward<Args>(args)...));
}

The make_unique function takes its parameters, forwards them to the T constructor, and then puts the pointer to the newly-constructed T inside a unique_ptr. Those parameters are forwarded perfectly into the constructor: If the original parameters were rvalue reference, then the constructor receives rvalue reference. If the original parameters were lvalue references, then the constructor receives lvalue reference.

But the catch is that it can forward only objects. It can’t forward “braced things that are trying to become objects”.

C++ exceptions and memory allocation failure -- Wu Yongwei

By Wu Yongwei | Aug 24, 2023 10:45 AM | Tags: None

C++ exceptions are habitually disabled in many software projects. A related issue is that these projects also encourage the use of new (nothrow) for fear of exceptions. Is it good practice or bad practice? Also, how likely are we to really encounter out-of-memory errors? I will investigate on this topic and discuss strategies to deal with memory issues.

C++ Exceptions and Memory Allocation Failure

By Wu Yongwei

From the article:

In fact, every time we initialize or modify a string, vector, or map, we may be allocating memory on the heap. If we think that new will end in an exception (and therefore choose to use new (nothrow)), exceptions may also occur when using these mechanisms. In a program that has disabled exceptions, the result will inevitably be a program crash.

Ignoring abnormal scenarios like allocating more memory than the physical memory size at a time (which would likely be a logic error in the program), can a reasonable program still experience memory allocation failures?

C++23: static operator() and static operator[] -- Sandor Dargo

By Blog Staff | Aug 23, 2023 02:03 PM | Tags: None

In this article, we are going to review two new features of C++23. Now the language allows the call operator (operator()) and the subscription operator (operator[]) to be static.

C++23: static operator() and static operator[]

By Sandor Dargo

From the article:

static operator()

As we saw earlier in our big C++ algorithms tutorial, function objects are extensively used in the standard library to customise the behaviour of several functions. With the introduction of ranges in C++20 (and of earlier non-standard libraries), the usage of function objects became even more widespread.

Many function objects are extremely simple. Let’s take an implementation of isEven.

auto isEven = [](int i) {return i % 2 == 0;};

2023-08 Mailing Available

By Administrator | Aug 23, 2023 09:54 AM | Tags: None

The 2023-08 mailing of new standards papers is now available.

C++23: Syntactic Sugar with Deducing This -- Rainer Grimm

By Blog Staff | Aug 21, 2023 01:57 PM | Tags: None

The Curiously Recurring Template Pattern (CRTP) is a heavily used idiom in C++. It is similarly resistant to understanding as the classic design pattern visitor I presented in my last post: “C++23: Deducing This“.  Thanks to deducing this, we can remove the C and R from the abbreviation.

C++23: Syntactic Sugar with Deducing This

By Rainer Grimm

From the article:

CRTP

The acronym CRTP stands for the C++ idiom Curiously Recurring Template Pattern and denotes a technique in C++ in which a class Derived is derived from a class template Base. The critical point is that Base has Derived as a template argument.

template <typename T>
class Base{
    ...
};

class Derived : public Base<Derived>{
    ...
};

CRTP is typically used to implement static polymorphism. Unlike dynamic polymorphism, static polymorphism happens at compile time and does not require an expensive run-time pointer indirection.

Introduction to Programming with C++ For Engineers, Book Review -- Bartlomiej Filipek

By Bjarne Stroustrup | Aug 18, 2023 01:52 PM | Tags: None

Lots of practical examples, general programming, software development techniques, OOP, parallel algorithms, plus C++ to combine it all into working applications. This is a short introduction to the book “Introduction to Programming with C++” by Prof. Boguslaw Cyganek, an excellent book for students who start their journey with system coding.

Introduction to Programming with C++ For Engineers, Book Review

By Bartlomiej Filipek

From the review:

“I have been highly impressed by Introduction to Programming with C++ for Engineers and can’t recommend it enough. With its content designed keeping in mind the author’s own students, the book assumes no prior programming experience, making it an excellent choice for anyone who wishes to learn C++ as their first programming language. […]
The book extends its reach beyond just the programming language, shedding light on aspects such as microprocessor operations, software development processes, UML, and more. Furthermore, the appendices cover essential tools like CMake and Git, making this book a comprehensive guide for anyone delving into C++ programming. The detailed content, careful attention to detail, and clarity in explaining concepts have garnered much praise for the book. This makes it an invaluable resource for those aspiring to learn and understand modern C++ programming."