string view is beneficial over const string& or not

Question

Hi

Please refer code below:
string_view is also not allocating new memory and const string& also help us avoid string copy. Is there any other benifit of using string view?

As showcased in code, I am aware that substring of string view is better than substring of string. But in case I need only whole string for viewing purpose, has string view a better performance compared to constant string ref?
https://sololearn.com/compiler-playground/cRRal1Yk3jHT/?ref=app

Answer 1

In the provided code, you've illustrated the memory allocation behavior of different string-related operations. You correctly pointed out that both `const string&` and `string_view` can avoid unnecessary memory allocation for string copies.

The key benefit of `string_view` lies in its ability to efficiently represent a view into a portion of a string without creating a new string or allocating additional memory. This is particularly useful when you are working with substrings or portions of a larger string.

In your example, the function `printSubString2` using `const string&` creates a new string using `substr`, which may involve memory allocation. On the other hand, `printSubString3` using `string_view` does not allocate additional memory, making it more efficient when you only need a view into a substring.

So, the main advantage of `string_view` is its lightweight nature for representing substrings or views into existing strings without the overhead of memory allocation and copying. This can be especiall

Answer 2

here is another SO answer to a question similar to yours:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40127965/how-exactly-is-stdstring-view-faster-than-const-stdstring

basically, stringview is straight referencing instead of first parsing to string as in the case of const string&

Answer 3

Bob_Li 卂ㄚㄩ丂卄 Ketan Lalcheta can u guys just summarize the entire thing like are u talking some better alternative to string.substr() or something 🤔😅

Answer 4

[Listen Once🌙]
Ketan Lalcheta was asking about the advantage of using string_view over using const string& when storing a string to memory.