Does std::string move constructor actually move?

Question

So here i got a small test program:

#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <memory>
#include <vector>

class Test
{
public:
  Test(const std::vector<int>& a_, const std::string& b_)
    : a(std::move(a_)),
      b(std::move(b_)),
      vBufAddr(reinterpret_cast<long long>(a.data())),
      sBufAddr(reinterpret_cast<long long>(b.data()))
  {}

  Test(Test&& mv)
    : a(std::move(mv.a)),
      b(std::move(mv.b)),
      vBufAddr(reinterpret_cast<long long>(a.data())),
      sBufAddr(reinterpret_cast<long long>(b.data()))
  {}

  bool operator==(const Test& cmp)
  {
    if (vBufAddr != cmp.vBufAddr) {
      std::cout << "Vector buffers differ: " << std::endl
        << "Ours: " << std::hex << vBufAddr << std::endl
        << "Theirs: " << cmp.vBufAddr << std::endl;
      return false;
    }
    
    if (sBufAddr != cmp.sBufAddr) {
      std::cout << "String buffers differ: " << std::endl
        << "Ours: " << std::hex << sBufAddr << std::endl
        << "Theirs: " << cmp.sBufAddr << std::endl;
      return false;
    }
  }

private:
  
  std::vector<int> a;
  std::string b;
  long long vBufAddr;
  long long sBufAddr;
};

int main()
{
  Test obj1 { {0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x04}, {0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x04}};
  Test obj2(std::move(obj1));

  obj1 == obj2;
  
                       
  return 0;
}

Software i used for test:

Compiler: gcc 7.3.0

Compiler flags: -std=c++11

OS: Linux Mint 19 (tara) with upstream release Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (bionic)

The results i see here, that after move, vector buffer still has the same address, but string buffer doesn't. So it looks to me, that it allocated fresh one, instead of just swapping buffer pointers. What causes such behavior?

Answer 1

You're likely seeing the effects of the small/short string optimization (SSO). To avoid unnecessary allocations for every tiny little string, many implementations of std::string include a small fixed size array to hold small strings without requiring new (this array usually repurposes some of the other members that aren't necessary when dynamic allocation has not been used, so it consumes little or no additional memory to provide it, either for small or large strings), and those strings don't benefit from std::move (but they're small, so it's fine). Larger strings will require dynamic allocation, and will transfer the pointer as you expect.

Just for demonstration, this code on g++:

void move_test(std::string&& s) {
    std::string s2 = std::move(s);
    std::cout << "; After move: " << std::hex << reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(s2.data()) << std::endl;
}

int main()
{
    std::string sbase;

    for (size_t len=0; len < 32; ++len) {
        std::string s1 = sbase;
        std::cout << "Length " << len << " - Before move: " << std::hex << reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(s1.data());
        move_test(std::move(s1));
        sbase += 'a';
    }
}

Try it online!

produces high (stack) addresses that change on move construction for lengths of 15 or less (presumably varies with architecture pointer size), but switches to low (heap) addresses that remain unchanged after move construction once you hit length 16 or higher (the switch is at 16, not 17, because it is NUL-terminating the strings, since C++11 and higher require it).

To be 100% clear: This is an implementation detail. No part of the C++ spec requires this behavior, so you should not rely on it occurring at all, and when it occurs, you should not rely on it occurring for specific string lengths.