C++ Primer Plus

F. The string Template Class

Much of this appendix is a bit technical. However, if you just want to know the capabilities of the string template class, you can concentrate on the descriptions of the various string methods.

The string class is based on a template definition:

template<class charT, class traits = char_traits<charT>,                 class Allocator = allocator<charT> >class basic_string {...};

Here charT represents the type stored in the string. The traits parameter represents a class that defines necessary properties that a type must possess to be represented as a string. For example, it should have a length() method that returns the length of a string, represented as an array of type charT. The end of such an array is indicated ...