class std::string_view in C++17
Last Updated :
15 Jul, 2025
The std::string has some demerits, one of the most common situations is constant strings. Below is the program that demonstrates the problem that occurs in dealing with constant strings with std::string:
Program 1:
C++
// C++ program to demonstrate the
// problem occurred in string
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
// Driver Code
int main()
{
char str_1[]{ "Hello !!, GeeksforGeeks" };
string str_2{ str_1 };
string str_3{ str_2 };
// Print the string
cout << str_1 << '\n'
<< str_2 << '\n'
<< str_3 << '\n';
return 0;
}
Output:

Explanation: The output is the same as expected. But, in order to view “Hello !!, GeeksforGeeks” twice the std::string performs overheads on the memory twice. But here the task was to read the string ("Hello !!, GeeksforGeeks"), and no write operation is required on it. So just to display a string why assign memory multiple times. In order to deal with the strings more efficiently, C++17 proposed std::string_view() which provides the view of pre-defined char str[] without creating a new object to the memory.
Drawback of std::string: In the above example, the same string str_1 is printed twice by assigning two different string variables. So for both the variables str_2 and str_3, the memory was allocated using the static memory allocation, and that cause overhead on our memory twice.
Benefits of std::string_view:
- Light and Cheaper: The std::string_view is a very light, cheaper and is mainly used to provide the view of the string. Whenever the string_view is created there is no need to copy the string in the manner as done in the above example that was inefficient and was causing overhead on the memory. It makes the copying process of the string quite efficient and never creates any copy of the string when the modification is being made in the viewed string the made changes have appeared in the std::string_view.
- Better Performance: The std::string_view is better than the const std::string& because it removes the constraint of having a std::string object at the very beginning of the string as std::string_view is composed of two elements first one is const char* that points to the starting position of the array and the second is size.
- Supports crucial function: The std::string_view supports mostly all crucial function that is applied over the std::string like substr, compare, find, overloaded comparison operators (e.g., ==, <, >, !=). So in most of the cases, it removes the constraint of having a std::string object declaration when our preference is read-only.
std::string_view: C++17 library has proposed a standard type of string (std::string_view) which is different from the usual std::string.
- The std::string_view provides a lightweight object that offers read-only access to a string or a part of a string using an interface similar to the interface of std::_string and merely refers to the contiguous char sequence. Unlike std::string, which keeps its own copy of the string, It also provides a view of a string that is defined elsewhere in the source code.
- it is composed of two members: a const char* that points to the start of the char array, and the _size. It is a non-owning reference to a string in itself.
- It is defined in the header(#include <string_view>), and std::string_view class template is as follows:
template<class CharT, class Traits = std::char_traits<CharT>> class basic_string_view;
The class template string_view explains about an object that can refer to a constant contiguous sequence of char's or array of char's -like objects with the first element of the sequence at position zero.
Below is the exact version of the above source code using std::string_view:
Program 2:
C++
// C++ program to implement
// the above approach
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
#include <string_view>
// Driver code
int main()
{
// View the text "hello", which is
// stored in the binary
string_view str_1{ "Hello !!, GeeksforGeeks" };
// View of the same "hello"
string_view str_2{ str_1 };
// View of the same "hello"
string_view str_3{ str_2 };
std::cout << str_1 << '\n' << str_2 << '\n' << str_3 << '\n';
return 0;
}
Output-

Explanation: The output would be the same as above, but no more copies of the string “Hello !!, GeeksforGeeks” are created in the Memory.
Parameters In std::string_view:
Char Type:
The char type defines the type of characters that are stored in the string_view. The C++ Standard Library provides the following typedefs for specializations of the template described above.
- string_view for elements of type char
- wstring_view, for wchar_t
- u16string_view for char16_t
- u32string_view for char32_t
Below is the C++ program to illustrate the Char Type:
Program 3:
C++
// C++ program for the above approach
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <string_view>
using namespace std;
string_view sur_name(wstring_view x)
{
return x.substr(6);
}
// Driver Code
int main()
{
// Basic_string_view<wchar_t> wstr
// (L"Madhav_Mohan"); both are equivalent
const wchar_t* str1{ L"Madhav_Mohan" };
cout << your_name(str1);
return 0;
}
Output-

Example Of std::string_view: Below examples, show that most of the string-based functions can be used with std::string_view as used str.compare(), str.back(), str.cend(), and str.at() functions.
Program 4:
C++
// C++ program to implement
// the above approach
#include <iostream>
#include <string_view>
using namespace std;
string to_alpha(int r)
{
if (r < 0)
return " less than ";
else if (r == 0)
return " equal to ";
else
return " greater than ";
}
// Driver code
int main()
{
char str{ "Muddy" };
char str_1{ "Maddy" };
string_view str_2{ str_1 };
// This line prints Maddy
cout << str_2 << '\n';
// Change 'M' to 'D' in arr
str_1[0] = 'D';
// This line prints Daddy
cout << str_2 << '\n';
cout << str_2.at(2);
cout << str_2.back();
cout << " is last char of str_2 is y " << (str_2.back() == 's');
cout << " is last char of str_2 is y " << boolalpha << (str_2.back() == 's');
// In above statement boolalpha is
// used to give the boolean result
// in True or False
int cmp{ str_1.compare(str_2) };
cout << to_alpha(cmp
};
int cmp_1 = str.compare(1, 4, str_2);
cout << "last three characters of str are" << to_alpha(cmp_1) << "str_2.\n";
return 0;
}
Output:

Modification of std::string_view: In C++20 some new functions have been added like str.remove_suffix(), str.remove_suffix() using these functions can modify the std::string_view. Like can remove the selective suffix or prefixes of the given string.
Program 5:
C++
// C++ program to implement
// the above approach
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <string_view>
using namespace std;
// Driver code
int main()
{
string_view str_1{ "Maddy" };
cout << str_1 << '\n';
string_view str_2{ "Daddy" };
cout << str_2 << '\n';
string_view var{ "Hello !!, GeeksforGeeks" };
cout << var << '\n';
cout << var.starts_with("Hi !!") << '\n';
cout << var.ends_with("GeeksforGeeks !!") << '\n';
// Remove the first characters.
str_1.remove_prefix(1);
cout << str_1 << '\n';
// Remove the last 2 characters.
str_1.remove_suffix(2);
std::cout << str_1 << '\n';
return 0;
}
Output:

Below is the example of some other operations that can be performed with std::string_view:
Program 6:
C++
// C++ program to implement the
// above approach
#include <array>
#include <cstddef>
#include <iostream>
#include <stdexcept>
#include <string>
#include <string_view>
using namespace std;
// Driver code
int main()
{
constexpr string_view str{ "Daddy" };
constexpr string_view str1{ "Maddy" };
string str2{};
// Copy data of str1 into str2
str1.copy(str2.data(), 4);
// This line prints Madddy
cout << str2.data() << '\n';
if ((str.compare(str2)) != 0)
cout << str << " "
<< "doesn't = to"
<< " " << str1 << '\n';
cout << str1.starts_with("Mad");
cout << '\n'
<< str.starts_with("Pad") << '\n';
cout << str1.ends_with("ddt");
cout << '\n'
<< str.ends_with("ddy") << '\n';
// Checks whether the given string contains
// the given substring or character
constexpr string_view s1{ "Hello! Madhav" };
// Position of the first character that
// match first
constexpr string_view str3{ "Hi! Maddy" };
size_t found = str3.find(str1);
cout << found << '\n';
// Find the last occurrence of a substring
cout << '\n'
<< str3.rfind('d');
// Gives the first time occurred char's position
cout << '\n'
<< str3.find_first_of("d");
// Gives the last time occurred char's position
cout << '\n'
<< str3.find_last_of("d");
// Finds the first char that's not equal to
// any of the char(s) in the given string
cout << '\n'
<< str3.find_last_not_of(str, 6);
// It givesIndex of first unmatched character
// when successful or string::npos if no such
// character found. It searches for the first
// char that doesn't match any of the char(s)
// that has given in the argument
cout << '\n'
<< str3.find_last_not_of(str, 4);
return 0;
}
Output:

Non-null Terminated Strings: Unlike C-strings and std::string which need a string terminator ('\0') at the end of a string, std::string_view doesn’t need null terminators to mark the end of the string. Because it keeps the track of the string length.
Below is the C++ program to implement the above approach:
Program 7:
C++
// C++ program to implement
// the above approach
#include <iostream>
// For std::size
#include <iterator>
#include <string_view>
using namespace std;
// Driver code
int main()
{
// No null-terminator.
char name[]{ 'M', 'a', 'd',
'h', 'a', 'v' };
// Here name isn't null-terminated.
// We need to pass the length manually.
// Because name is an array, we can
// use std::size to get its length.
string_view str_1{ \name, size(name) };
// This is safe and cout knows how to
// print std::string_views.
cout << str_1 << '\n';
return 0;
}
Output:

Conversion Of std::string_view Into std::string: Explicit conversion methods need to be used because implicit conversion won't help here.
Below is the C++ program to implement the conversion of std::string_view to std::string:
Program 8:
C++
// C++ program to implement
// the above approach
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <string_view>
using namespace std;
void print(string s)
{
cout << s << '\n';
}
// Driver code
int main()
{
string_view str_1{ "Madhav" };
str_1.remove_suffix(3);
// compile error: won't implicitly
// convert
// print(str_1);
// explicit conversion
string str_2{ str_1 };
print(str_2);
// It'll work
print(static_cast<string>(str_1));
return 0;
}
Output:

Conversion Of std::string_view To C-style String: Functions such as strlen(), these functions need a C-style string in order to be used. So, whenever there is a need to convert a std::string_view to a C-style string, it can be done by first converting to a std::string.
Below is the C++ program to implement the above approach:
Program 9:
C++
// C++ program to implement
// the above approach
#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <string_view>
// Driver code
int main()
{
string_view str_1{ "Madhav" };
str_1.remove_suffix(3);
// Create a std::string from
// the std::string_view
string str_2{ str_1 };
// A Null_terminated C-style string.
auto Null_Terminated{ str_2.c_str() };
// Pass the null-terminated string
// to the function that we want to use.
cout << str_2 << " has " << strlen(Null_Terminated) << " letter's\n";
return 0;
}
Output:

Scoping Issues With std::string_view: The std::string_view provides a view, so it remains independent of a string of which it provides a view, and it projects the view of the string unless the viewed string is in scope but in case if the viewed strings scope goes out then the std::string_view has nothing that remains to project so it shows undefined behavior. std::string_view always needs a string literal or a string that has been created by a std::string within the scope in order to project the view of string, but as soon as scope dies std::string_view cannot create any strings on its own because it’s just only a view.
Below is the example to implement the above approach:
Program 10:
C++
// C++ program to implement
// the above approach
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <string_view>
using namespace std;
string_view ask_name()
{
cout << "Write your surname?\n";
// A std::string is needed, because
// std::cin needs to modify it.
string str_1{};
cin >> str_1;
// Pass str_1 to std::string_view
string_view str_2{ str_1 };
cout << str_2 << '\n';
// str_1 dies, and so does the
// string that str created.
return str_2;
}
// Driver code
int main()
{
std::string_view str_2{ ask_name() };
// str_2 is observing a string that
// already died.
// Undefined behavior you'll observe
cout << your surname is << str_2 << '\n';
return 0;
}
Output:

Execution Of std::string_view with data() Function: The data() function writes the characters of the string into an array. It returns a pointer to the array, obtained from the conversion of string to the array. Its Return type is not a valid C-string as no ‘\0’ character gets appended at the end of the array.
Below is the C++ program to implement the above approach:
Program 11:
C++
// C++ program to implement
// the above approach
#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
#include <string_view>
// Driver code
int main()
{
string str{ "Madhav_Mohan" };
string_view str1{ str.data() };
cout << str1 << endl;
string_view str2{ str1.substr(6) };
string_view str3{ str2 };
cout << str3;
return 0;
}
Output:

Non-member functions:
operator==
operator!= (has been removed in C++20)
operator< (has been removed in C++20)
operator> (has been removed in C++20)
operator<= (has been removed in C++20)
operator>= (has been removed in C++20)
operator<=> (has newly been included C++20)
Note: Std::string_view run only in C++17 or in above versions only. There is a number of functions that are incorporated with std::string_view some of them are new(C++20) and some of them are old. Here below I am referencing the web_address where you can get them too into deep.
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Difference Between Call by Value and Call by Reference in CFunctions can be invoked in two ways: Call by Value or Call by Reference. These two ways are generally differentiated by the type of values passed to them as parameters.The following table lists the differences between the call-by-value and call-by-reference methods of parameter passing.Call By Valu
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Default Arguments in C++A default argument is a value provided for a parameter in a function declaration that is automatically assigned by the compiler if no value is provided for those parameters in function call. If the value is passed for it, the default value is overwritten by the passed value.Example:C++#include <i
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Inline Functions in C++In C++, inline functions provide a way to optimize the performance of the program by reducing the overhead related to a function call. When a function is specified as inline the whole code of the inline function is inserted or substituted at the point of its call during the compilation instead of us
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Lambda Expression in C++C++ 11 introduced lambda expressions to allow inline functions which can be used for short snippets of code that are not going to be reused. Therefore, they do not require a name. They are mostly used in STL algorithms as callback functions.Example:C++#include <iostream> using namespace std; i
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C++ Pointers and References
Pointers and References in C++In C++ pointers and references both are mechanisms used to deal with memory, memory address, and data in a program. Pointers are used to store the memory address of another variable whereas references are used to create an alias for an already existing variable. Pointers in C++ Pointers in C++ are a
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C++ PointersA pointer is a special variable that holds the memory address of another variable, rather than storing a direct value itself. Pointers allow programs to access and manipulate data in memory efficiently, making them a key feature for system-level programming and dynamic memory management. When we acc
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Dangling, Void , Null and Wild Pointers in CIn C programming pointers are used to manipulate memory addresses, to store the address of some variable or memory location. But certain situations and characteristics related to pointers become challenging in terms of memory safety and program behavior these include Dangling (when pointing to deall
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Applications of Pointers in CPointers in C are variables that are used to store the memory address of another variable. Pointers allow us to efficiently manage the memory and hence optimize our program. In this article, we will discuss some of the major applications of pointers in C. Prerequisite: Pointers in C. C Pointers Appl
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Understanding nullptr in C++Consider the following C++ program that shows problem with NULL (need of nullptr) CPP // C++ program to demonstrate problem with NULL #include <bits/stdc++.h> using namespace std; // function with integer argument void fun(int N) { cout << "fun(int)"; return;} // Overloaded fun
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References in C++In C++, a reference works as an alias for an existing variable, providing an alternative name for it and allowing you to work with the original data directly.Example:C++#include <iostream> using namespace std; int main() { int x = 10; // ref is a reference to x. int& ref = x; // printing v
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Can References Refer to Invalid Location in C++?Reference Variables: You can create a second name for a variable in C++, which you can use to read or edit the original data contained in that variable. While this may not sound appealing at first, declaring a reference and assigning it a variable allows you to treat the reference as if it were the
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Pointers vs References in C++Prerequisite: Pointers, References C and C++ support pointers, which is different from most other programming languages such as Java, Python, Ruby, Perl and PHP as they only support references. But interestingly, C++, along with pointers, also supports references. On the surface, both references and
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Passing By Pointer vs Passing By Reference in C++In C++, we can pass parameters to a function either by pointers or by reference. In both cases, we get the same result. So, what is the difference between Passing by Pointer and Passing by Reference in C++?Let's first understand what Passing by Pointer and Passing by Reference in C++ mean:Passing by
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When do we pass arguments by pointer?In C, the pass-by pointer method allows users to pass the address of an argument to the function instead of the actual value. This allows programmers to change the actual data from the function and also improve the performance of the program. In C, variables are passed by pointer in the following ca
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