AnsiString Class

System::AnsiString is the C++ analog for the Delphi long string type.

Pascal

AnsiString = class;

C++

class AnsiString;

File

dstring.h

Description

Delphi utilizes several string types. The most important is the long string type, more commonly known as System::AnsiString. Support for this type includes the following features:

strings as large as available memory;

efficient use of memory through shared references;

routines and operators that evaluate strings based on the current locale.

Despite its name, System::AnsiString is not restricted to the ANSI character set, and can utilize any character set supported by the current locale definition, including multi-byte character sets.

System::AnsiString variables that have not been assigned an initial value contain a zero-length string.

To utilize the C++ streaming operators (<< and >>) with System::AnsiString, you must iostream before including system.hpp and use AnsiString::c_str() to return the internal string representation. The following example demonstrates the usage of AnsiString with stream operators:

Copy Code

#include <iostream>
#include <system.hpp>
int main() {
  AnsiString HelloStr = "hello";
  std::cout << HelloStr.c_str();
}

Note: Delphi also supports System::AnsiString, but implements it as a primitive type rather than a class. By default, variables declared as type String are System::AnsiString.