Re: [Boost-users] easy serialization question

From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-02-09 12:23:28

David Klein wrote:
>> One of the data types though is MFC's CString - which is just like
>> std:string, just a wrapper around a character array. The only way to
>> get the contents of a CString as a char array is a function called
>> GetBuffer() which returns a non-const char pointer to the internal
>> array.

returns a non-const char pointer?  so the mfc CString gives you a pointer to 
a buffer you might want to modify from outside the class?  Looks like a bad 
idea to me.  In any case I would use const_cast to cast the result to a 
"char const * const" to cast to a constant pointer to a const array of 
chars.  This should do the trick.  If you want to avoid sprinkling this 
syntactic vinegar through your code you mith make an non-intrusive 
serialization of mfc CString so you can just use:

#include "...mfc/cstring.hpp"
CString x;
...
ar << x;
...
ar >> x;

Robert Ramey

>>My compiler does not seem to like this, as I guess the save()
>> function is defined as const? Is this right, and if so, is there any
>> way I can get around this one?
>>
>>     ar & m_3rdPartyClass.m_SomeCString.GetBuffer(); // returns non
>> const char* !!
>>
>
> I don't know how serialization for std::string is done, but it's
> supported by
> the library. Maybe you could create a temporary std::string from your
> MFC string
> and serialize that one instead? Though there may be a decrease in
> performance
> if you have a lot of strings to deal with.