My question is related to the use of the "s" suffix in C++?

Example of code using the "s" suffix:

auto hello = "Hello!"s; // a std::string

The same could be written as:

auto hello = std::string{"Hello!"};

I was able to find online that the "s" suffix should be used to minimizes mistakes and to clarify our intentions in the code.

Therefore, is the use of the "s" suffix only meant for the reader of the code? Or are there others advantages to its use?

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2 Answers

Null characters can be included in the raw string trivially; example from

int main()
{ using namespace std::string_literals; std::string s1 = "abc\0\0def"; std::string s2 = "abc\0\0def"s; std::cout << "s1: " << s1.size() << " \"" << s1 << "\"\n"; std::cout << "s2: " << s2.size() << " \"" << s2 << "\"\n";
}

Possible output:

s1: 3 "abc"
s2: 8 "abc^@^@def"

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Therefore, is the use of the "s" suffix only meant for the reader of the code?

No, its not only for the reader of the code, but tells the compiler which exact type to create from the literal.

Or are there others advantages to its use?

Sure: There is the advantage to write that code shorter but yet yielding the wanted type

auto hello = "Hello!"s;

As you noticed this creates a std::string and is the same as writing

auto hello = std::string{"Hello!"};

, whereas

auto hello = "Hello!";

would create a const char* pointer pointing to a const char[7] array.

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