A simple class for holding temporary references to a string literal or String.
Unlike a real String object, the StringRef does not allocate any memory or take ownership of the strings you give to it - it simply holds a reference to a string that has been allocated elsewhere. The main purpose of the class is to be used instead of a const String& as the type of function arguments where the caller may pass either a string literal or a String object. This means that when the called uses a string literal, there's no need for an temporary String object to be allocated, and this cuts down overheads substantially.
Because the class is simply a wrapper around a pointer, you should always pass it by value, not by reference.
void myStringFunction1 (
const String&);
myStringFunction1 ("abc");
myStringFunction2 ("abc");
Definition juce_JPEGLoader.cpp:48
StringRef(const char *stringLiteral) noexcept
For examples of it in use, see the XmlElement or StringArray classes.
Bear in mind that there are still many cases where it's better to use an argument which is a const String&. For example if the function stores the string or needs to internally create a String from the argument, then it's better for the original argument to already be a String.
- See also
- String