Tim Smith wrote: Read the C++ standard section 2.13.4.3. Then I must also consider these examples that accompany the Concatenation section: Another way to continue a string is to have two or more consecutive strings. Adjacent string literals will be concatenated to produce a single string. The following example demonstrates this: "hello " "there" // is equivalent to "hello there" "hello" "there" // is equivalent to "hellothere" char *third = "Hello " "there"; // stored as "Hello there\0" Characters in concatenated strings remain distinct. For example, the strings "\xab" and "3" are concatenated to form "\xab3", rather than the single hex character \xab3. I believe this site also has a mention of how concatenation is implemented. Tim Smith wrote: In translation phase 6 (2.1), adjacent narrow string literals are concatenated and adjacent wide string literals are concatenated. If a narrow string literal token is adjacent to a wide string literal token, the behavior is undefined... My example did not mix wide and narrow literals, but that's not the point here. Tim Smith wrote: The two strings are concatentated. Indeed, but not in the sense of what one typically thinks of with concatenation (e.g., the "+" operator). Tim Smith wrote: They way you describe it is totally wrong. I respectfully disagree, as it makes perfect sense to me and others I've spoken with about it. Perhaps we are saying the same thing two different ways. Tim Smith wrote: It doesn't just ignore the two quotes as also covered in 2.13.4.3. The compiler sees/stores the two concatenated literals as one single literal. Tim Smith wrote: It doesn't just place the two strings after each other in the EXE. If the two concatenated literals were stored separately, how would the compiler know to find the other piece(s)? It's not like there is a pointer at the end of the first one that points to the start of the second one. Look at some of your latest .exe or .dll files and you'll see that string literals are kept together. Tim Smith wrote: Literal string pooling requires that strings be moved around. Of course, but only when they are
