How to create a std::string directly from a char* array without copying?

Question

Say I have an array of chars, which I have allocated on the heap, and which I want to convert into an std::string. Currently I am doing the following:

char *array = new char[size];
WriteIntoArray(array, size);
std::string mystring(array);
delete[] array;
return mystring; // or whatever

From what I read on the internet (http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/string/string/string/), the string constructor performs a copy of the buffer I pass it, leaving me to free the buffer (later, the string frees its internal buffer). What I would like to do is to allocate my buffer, transfer control of it to the string, and then have it free my buffer when it is destructed.

The question initializing std::string from char* without copy looked promising, but my code relies on API calls ("WriteIntoArray" in the above example) which have to write into an array of chars, so I have to create a C-style char* buffer, and cannot convert my code to use only built-in string operations (which was the answer suggested).

Is there some standard way to do this, or should I just write my own string class (ugh)? Thanks!

Answer 1

If you're using a conforming C++0x implementation, or one of the many C++ libraries that guarantee contiguous storage for std::string, then you can get a char* that points directly to the storage used by your std::string.

For example:

std::string mystring;
mystring.resize(size);
WriteIntoArray(&mystring[0], size);
return mystring;

You may have to think carefully about a null terminator, however.

Answer 2

You may implement your own std::allocator that instead of allocating new memory for your string, uses as the source the region you already have instantiated.

You should then instantiate your std::string using your allocator.

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/4795/C-Standard-Allocator-An-Introduction-and-Implement