StringOwnership

StringOwnership

Specifications

Type	Size	Memory Management Model	File
StringOwnership	8 bytes	None	2.7/String.adept

Definition

enum StringOwnership (REFERENCE, OWN, GIVEN, DONOR)

Values

Enum Value	Purpose	After __pass__(String)	After __assign__(*String, POD String)
StringOwnership::REFERENCE	Reference String	REFERENCE	REFERENCE
StringOwnership::OWN	Owned String	REFERENCE	REFERENCE
StringOwnership::GIVEN	Transfer String	OWN	OWN
StringOwnership::DONOR	Donor String	DONOR	REFERENCE

Purpose

StringOwnership is used to represent the different states that a String value can be in.

Ownership Manipulation

When String values are passed to functions/methods, they are converted to kind StringOwnership::REFERENCE if they are StringOwnership::OWN, so that the callee doesn't take responsibility for freeing them. If they are StringOwnership::GIVEN, then they are converted to kind StringOwnership::OWN, so that the callee now has responsibility of freeing them. When String values are donate()d, they will be converted to kind StringOwnership::DONOR, to indicate that the string has donated ownership and therefore doesn't retain information about the given value.