What is the purpose of the string.copy method?

[CMirandaman]

Sounds like a stupid question I know. I can tell that they are used to copy
strings. But what is the difference between
x = y;
versus x = String.Copy(y);

Or are they essentially the same?

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

CMirandaman <CM*********@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

Sounds like a stupid question I know. I can tell that they are used to copy
strings. But what is the difference between
x = y;
versus x = String.Copy(y);

Or are they essentially the same?

String.Copy returns a new string with the same content. Assignment uses
the same *reference*.

One potential use of it is to "trim" strings which have been
constructed with StringBuilder. They often have "padding" at the end of
the string (to allow for appending while they're still in
StringBuilder). I've used the equivalent of this in Java a few times -
can't say I've ever used it in .NET.

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

[Patrik Löwendahl [C# MVP]]

Hello CMirandaman,

Essentially the first one ( x = y ) do not copy the string, it just assigns
x the same reference that y has. Meaning it get's a reference to the string
object, not a copy.
While string.Copy makes a real copy of the string.

--
Patrik Löwendahl [C# MVP]
http://www.lowendahl.net

Sounds like a stupid question I know. I can tell that they are used to
copy
strings. But what is the difference between
x = y;
versus x = String.Copy(y);
Or are they essentially the same?

[CMirandaman]

Sorry to be dense about this but is there a practical difference as far as
writing code is concerned? If I run the following code:
string s;
string p;
s = "Hello";
p = s;
s = "Goodbye";
The output is "Hello" so it appears that assignment functions like a copy..
Can you give me an example of when the Copy method would be needed?

"Patrik Löwendahl [C# MVP]" wrote:

Hello CMirandaman,

Essentially the first one ( x = y ) do not copy the string, it just assigns
x the same reference that y has. Meaning it get's a reference to the string
object, not a copy.
While string.Copy makes a real copy of the string.

--
Patrik Löwendahl [C# MVP]
http://www.lowendahl.net

Sounds like a stupid question I know. I can tell that they are used to
copy
strings. But what is the difference between
x = y;
versus x = String.Copy(y);
Or are they essentially the same?

[rossum]

On Sat, 21 Jan 2006 00:05:02 -0800, "CMirandaman"
<CM*********@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

Sounds like a stupid question I know. I can tell that they are used to copy
strings. But what is the difference between
x = y;
versus x = String.Copy(y);

Or are they essentially the same?

With x = y you get two pointers pointing to the same piece of memory,
remember that strings are reference types:

x-------> "abcdef"
^
|
y----------|
With x = String.Copy(y) you get two different copies of the string
itself:

x-------> "abcdef"
y-------> "abcdef"
rossum

--

The ultimate truth is that there is no ultimate truth

[Jeff Louie]

I think the OP has a point since strings are immutable, interned and
automatically newed. If both references refer to strings with the same
content, they may actually refer to the same interned string.

Regards,
Jeff

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[Bruce Wood]

No, they don't. Strings are interned only at compile time. At run time
it is perfectly possible (and common) to have two separate strings with
the same contents. (Kudos to Jon Skeet who corrected me on this until
it sunk in.)

Jon answered the OP's question: String.Copy is useful in some very
obscure circumstances having to do with StringBuilder.

I've never used it myself.

[Patrik Löwendahl [C# MVP]]

Hello.

well, you let S point to a new string object but P still points to the original
one so that's not strange; what you do is just playing with references. And
you are correct in that if you concatinate S instead, like so:

s = "hello";
p = s;
s += " world"

the output for p would be "hello" and for s "hello world" since a new object
is created (strings are immutable) and thus we wouldn't need copying. I can't
give you an practical example on when string.Copy would be needed since I
after 4 years yet have to find one. But that is the technical difference
anyhow.

--
Patrik Löwendahl [C# MVP]
http://www.lowendahl.net

Sorry to be dense about this but is there a practical difference as
far as
writing code is concerned? If I run the following code:
string s;
string p;
s = "Hello";
p = s;
s = "Goodbye";
The output is "Hello" so it appears that assignment functions like a
copy..
Can you give me an example of when the Copy method would be needed?

"Patrik Löwendahl [C# MVP]" wrote:

Hello CMirandaman,

Essentially the first one ( x = y ) do not copy the string, it just
assigns
x the same reference that y has. Meaning it get's a reference to the
string
object, not a copy.
While string.Copy makes a real copy of the string.
--
Patrik Löwendahl [C# MVP]
http://www.lowendahl.net

Sounds like a stupid question I know. I can tell that they are used
to
copy
strings. But what is the difference between
x = y;
versus x = String.Copy(y);
Or are they essentially the same?

[Jeff Louie]

Looking at Jon's page I see that it is only string literals that are
interned and for
practical purposes strings _act_ as a value type. So I still think the
OP has a valid
point as I have never needed to use String.Copy.

Regards,
Jeff

*** Sent via Developersdex http://www.developersdex.com ***

[Patrik Löwendahl [C# MVP]]

Hello Jeff,

I do agree. string.Copy has no real value since the CLR is doing a lot of
work under the covers.

Noteable though is that you have the option to intern you're own strings.

--
Patrik Löwendahl [C# MVP]
http://www.lowendahl.net

Looking at Jon's page I see that it is only string literals that are
interned and for
practical purposes strings _act_ as a value type. So I still think the
OP has a valid
point as I have never needed to use String.Copy.
Regards,
Jeff
*** Sent via Developersdex http://www.developersdex.com ***

[Nick Hounsome]

A bit artificial but:

class X
{
string s;

public X(string ss) { s = String.Copy(s); }

public F()
{
lock(s) { .... }
}
}

using the supplied string instead of a copy could cause problems

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Nick Hounsome <nh***@nickhounsome.me.uk> wrote:

A bit artificial but:

class X
{
string s;

public X(string ss) { s = String.Copy(s); }

public F()
{
lock(s) { .... }
}
}

using the supplied string instead of a copy could cause problems

Yup. I saw some code just the other day which was locking on a string.
Of course, that's a really bad idea in itself IMO, but there we go...

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

[CMirandaman]

Many thanks for all the replies to my post. You helped clarify an issue for
me that I just couldn't find spelled out in any documentation.

"CMirandaman" wrote:

Sounds like a stupid question I know. I can tell that they are used to copy
strings. But what is the difference between
x = y;
versus x = String.Copy(y);

Or are they essentially the same?