Search code examples
c++c++11c++14user-defined-literalsstorage-duration

storage duration of underlying character data with user-defined string literal


Quick setup: I want to pass strings around in my program as a pointer and a size. I have a String class and a user-defined literal for constructing literal Strings:

struct String { const char *ptr; size_t sz; };

inline constexpr String operator "" _string(const char *s, size_t sz) {
  return {s, sz};
}

int main() {
  auto s = "hello"_string;
  s.ptr[0]; //<-- is this access guaranteed to work?
}

Does the standard specify that the argument passed to my user-defined literal operator has static duration? i.e. is the above code actually equivalent to writing:

int main() {
  String s{"hello", 5};
}

or is the compiler/linker allowed to leave me with a dangling pointer when I use the user-defined literal?

(Section 2.13.8 of N4527 did not seem to say anything on the subject of storage class of the argument to the user-defined string literal operators. Any pointers into the appropriate section(s) of the standard would be appreciated.)


Solution

  • From [lex.ext]:

    If L is a user-defined-string-literal, let str be the literal without its ud-suffix and let len be the number of code units in str (i.e., its length excluding the terminating null character). The literal L is treated as a call of the form:

    operator "" X (str , len )
    

    From [lex.string]:

    Evaluating a string-literal results in a string literal object with static storage duration, initialized from the given characters as specified above.

    So:

    "hello"_string;
    

    is equivalent to:

    operator "" _string("hello", 5)
    

    As "hello" is a string-literal, it has static storage duration, so you will have no dangling pointer.