Editing String literal (section)

=== Constructor functions ===

C++ has two styles of string, one inherited from C (delimited by <code>"</code>), and the safer <code>std::string</code> in the C++ Standard Library. The <code>std::string</code> class is frequently used in the same way a string literal would be used in other languages, and is often preferred to C-style strings for its greater flexibility and safety. But it comes with a performance penalty for string literals, as <code>std::string</code> usually allocates memory dynamically, and must copy the C-style string literal to it at run time.

Before C++11, there was no literal for C++ strings (C++11 allows <code>"this is a C++ string"s</code> with the <code>s</code> at the end of the literal), so the normal constructor syntax was used, for example:
* {{code|2=cpp|1=std::string str = "initializer syntax";}}
* {{code|2=cpp|1=std::string str("converting constructor syntax");}}
* {{code|2=cpp|1=std::string str = string("explicit constructor syntax");}}

all of which have the same interpretation. Since C++11, there is also new constructor syntax:
* {{code|2=cpp|1=std::string str{"uniform initializer syntax"};}}
* {{code|2=cpp|1=auto str = "constexpr literal syntax"s;}}