Difference between revisions of "cpp/string/basic string/operator+"

The allocator used for the result is:

In other words, if one operand is a basic_string rvalue, its allocator is used; otherwise, select_on_container_copy_construction is used on the allocator of the lvalue basic_string operand. In each case, the left operand is preferred when both are basic_strings of the same value category.

For (6-12), all rvalue basic_string operands are left in valid but unspecified states.

Notes

operator+ should be used with great caution when stateful allocators are involved (such as when std::pmr::string is used)(since C++17). Prior to P1165R1, the allocator used for the result was determined by historical accident and can vary from overload to overload for no apparent reason. Moreover, for (1-5), the allocator propagation behavior varies across major standard library implementations and differs from the behavior depicted in the standard.

Because the allocator used by the result of operator+ is sensitive to value category, operator+ is not associative with respect to allocator propagation:

using my_string = std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, my_allocator<char>>;
my_string cat();
const my_string& dog();
 
my_string meow = /* ... */, woof = /* ... */;
meow + cat() + /*...*/; // uses SOCCC on meow's allocator
woof + dog() + /*...*/; // uses allocator of dog()'s return value instead
 
meow + woof + meow; // uses SOCCC on meow's allocator
meow + (woof + meow); // uses SOCCC on woof's allocator instead

For a chain of operator+ invocations, the allocator used for the ultimate result may be controlled by prepending an rvalue basic_string with the desired allocator:

// use my_favorite_allocator for the final result
my_string(my_favorite_allocator) + meow + woof + cat() + dog();

For better and portable control over allocators, member functions like append(), insert(), and operator+=() should be used on a result string constructed with the desired allocator.