CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++stringbinary
qdii
qdii

Reputation: 12973

Is it inappropriate to use a std::string to store binary data?

I was surprised to see in this question that someone modified a working snippet just because, as the author of the second answer says:

it didn't seem appropriate to me that I should work with binary data stored within std::string object

Is there a reason why I should not do so?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1165

Answers (1)

6502
6502

Reputation: 114579

For binary data in my opinion the best option is std::vector<unsigned char>.

Using std::string while technically works sends to the user the wrong message that the data being handled is text.

On the other side being able to accept any byte in a string is important because sometimes you know the content is text, but in an unknown encoding. Forcing std::string to contain only valid and decoded text would be a big limitation for real world use.

This kind of limitation is one of the few things I don't like about QString: this limitation makes it impossible for example to use a file selection dialog to open a file if the filename has a "wrong" (unexpected) encoding or if the encoding is actually invalid (it contains mistakes).

Upvotes: 7

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