What is std::basic_string::capacity in C/C++?

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The class template basic_string provides many functional operations on strings, such as searching, sorting, copying, clearing, etc. std::basic_string::capacity() is a member function of the basic_string class that gets the capacity of a given string.

What does std::basic_string::capacity() do?

std::basic_string::capacity() returns the number of characters that a string can store, meaning it returns the storage capacity of strings. The exact capacity of a string depends on the implementation. The capacity can be greater than or equal to the string’s length.

Header

This function requires the following header file:

#include <string>

Syntax

string.capacity();

Code

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
void print(string str){
cout<<str<<endl;
cout<<"The length of string is:"<<str.length()<<endl;
cout<<"The capacity of string is:"<<str.capacity()<<endl;
}
int main() {
string str("Happy Learning");
print(str);
string empty("");
print(empty);
//increase length of str
str+=" at educative";
print(str);
return 0;
}

Max size

The maximum size is another property associated with strings. The maximum size dictates the largest possible size a string can have, and if the value is exceeded, the compiler throws a length error exception. The max size depends on the operating system and architecture design.

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main() {
string str("Edpresso");
cout<<str.max_size()<<endl;
cout<<str.capacity()<<endl;
cout<<str.length()<<endl;
return 0;
}