Benefits of vector over string?

Question

This question is related to, but not quite the same as, this question.

Are there any benefits to using std::vector instead of std::str

Answer 1

As other answers mention, a vector could be marginally faster since it guarantees contiguous memory, even for small sizes, and doesn't add an extra null byte at the end. However, it is a lot simpler (code-wise) to concatenate two strings than it is to concatenate two vectors:

Using vector:

vector a, b;
// ...
vector c;
c.insert(c.end(), a.begin(), a.end());
c.insert(c.end(), b.begin(), b.end());

Using string:

string a, b;
// ...
string c = a + b;