initializing std::string from char* without copy

Question

I have a situation where I need to process large (many GB\'s) amounts of data as such:

1. build a large string by appending many smaller (C char*) strings

Answer 1

Is each iteration independent enough that you can use the same std::string for each iteration? One would hope that your std::string implementation is smart enough to re-use memory if you assign a const char * to it when it was previously used for something else.

Assigning a char * into a std::string must always at least copy the data. Memory management is one of the main reasons to use std::string, so you won't be a able to override it.