C++ In a Nutshell

<cstring>

The <cstring> header is for the C++ version of the C standard <string.h> header, which declares string-handling functions.

The functions in this section fall into two categories, identified by the first three letters of the function name:

mem . . .

The mem functions operate on arbitrary chunks of memory, treating the memory as arrays of unsigned char. The caller must specify the size of each memory chunk.

str . . .

The str functions operate on null-terminated character arrays. Even though the function parameters are declared as type char, they are always interpreted as unsigned char when comparing two characters.

See also <cwchar> for wide character string functions.

Note

Instead of using C-style, null-terminated character arrays, C++ code should use the string and wstring classes that are declared in the <string> header. C++ strings offer high performance, more flexibility, more safety, and greater ease of use. The char_traits class template in <string> also provides member functions for working with narrow and wide character arrays.