API Reference — arrayview/StringView

class StringView : public ConstArrayView<char>

A non-owning, NULL-safe view over a C string, built on top of ConstArrayView<char>.

When to use this

Use StringView instead of a raw const char* when you want array-view-style helpers (size, begin/end) over string data while still being able to get back a guaranteed-non-NULL C string via c_str() — even when the underlying data pointer is nullptr, c_str() returns "" instead of crashing.

Method groups

Group Methods
Construction (inherited via using Base::ArrayView)
Access c_str, operator const char, operator

Example

av::StringView name{nullptr, 0};
const char* safe = name.c_str();  // "" — never NULL, even for a null-backed view

Returns

const char* (from c_str(), operator const char*(), operator*()) — the underlying C string, or "" if the view has no backing data.

Watch out for

  • c_str(), operator const char*(), and operator*() all guard against a NULL data() pointer by returning "" instead of NULL — callers never need to NULL-check the result themselves.
  • All three accessors (c_str(), operator const char*(), operator*()) are identical — they all delegate to dataOrEmpty(). There is no semantic difference; use c_str() for readability.