alt Hacker NewsI wonder, why not use a string buffer paired with its length? For example, maybe use struct that has char pointer, and 2 ints (occupied length + total buffer length). Almost like c++'s std::string. This null terminator thing really sucks, it's potentially insecure and often unperformant.
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GalaxyNova • today at 12:02 AM
Yes I have seen it happen a few times with `strlen` being called in a loop silently causing O(N) to turn to O(N^2)
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chiph • today at 12:09 AM
Pascal did/does this, but eventually someone wants a string longer than the size portion can handle. Or wants the number of characters not the number of bytes.
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The size overhead of that is 2*sizeof(int) while the overhead of null termination is sizeof(char). If I remember the standard right, the former is worse by at least sizeof(char), and usually more in practice. This used to matter, sometimes still does.