Except that using count does much more than you need. Much like using strlen/size to test to see if a string is empty. Thus it is a performance problem. Even with a map, count with get the lower bound and then the upper bound for that key. Then it computes the delta of the two iterators. (V7 implementation) If you want to create some form of a test, create a template function to do the find and then test for end. Then again, you can just use the insert and avoid the needless double search. Tim Smith I'm going to patent thought. I have yet to see any prior art.

I'm sorry my views drove you to angry expletive I have tried to move what I thought was an important topic to the suggestions forum. Christian Graus wrote: People who are learning C++ are now required to understand it well enough to know which bits are STL before they are allowed to ask for help ? No that is the opposite of what I had intended to convey.

If the code is no too long, post the .h and .cpp files from your dialog class. This can help us a lot :)

There is a difference, check the disassembly 127: char aaa[] = "ssss"; 004B423D mov eax,[string "ssss" (005fd498)] 004B4242 mov dword ptr [ebp-18h],eax 004B4245 mov cl,byte ptr [string "ssss"+4 (005fd49c)] 004B424B mov byte ptr [ebp-14h],cl 128: char *bbb = "bbb"; 004B424E mov dword ptr [ebp-1Ch],offset string "bbb" (005fd46c) 129: 130: char *cc; 131: 132: cc = bbb; 004B4255 mov edx,dword ptr [ebp-1Ch] ; address of string is loaded from memory 004B4258 mov dword ptr [ebp-20h],edx 133: cc = aaa; 004B425B lea eax,[ebp-18h] ; cc just gets address 004B425E mov dword ptr [ebp-20h],eax rrrado