C/C++: Optimization of pointers to string constants

Question

Have a look at this code:

#include 
using namespace std;

int main()
{
    const char* str0 = \"Watchmen\";
    const char* str1 = \"Watchmen         


        

Answer 1

I would not rely on the behavior, because I am doubtful the C or C++ standards would make explicit this behavior, but it makes sense that the compiler does it. It also makes sense that it exhibits this behavior even in the absence of any optimization specified to the compiler; there is no trade-off in it.

All string literals in C or C++ (e.g. "string literal") are read-only, and thus constant. When you say:

char *s = "literal";

You are in a sense downcasting the string to a non-const type. Nevertheless, you can't do away with the read-only attribute of the string: if you try to manipulate it, you'll be caught at run-time rather than at compile-time. (Which is actually a good reason to use const char * when assigning string literals to a variable of yours.)