Python speed and `pcre'
Fredrik Lundh
fredrik at pythonware.com
Mon Sep 6 10:40:00 EDT 1999
Aahz Maruch <aahz at netcom.com> wrote:
> >The design issues are more complicated than that, alas. Here's one you
> >weren't thinking of <wink>: for easy chatting with C, under the covers a
> >Python string is always terminated with a null byte. You can't see that
> >from Python code (it's not counted in the string length, and you can't index
> >to it), but your C code can rely on it.
>
> Hmmm.... From what I've seen, Python strings work perfectly well with
> null bytes in the middle. Are there any circumstances under which that
> does not hold true?
from Include/stringobject.h:
Type PyStringObject represents a character string. An extra zero
byte is reserved at the end to ensure it is zero-terminated, but a
size is present so strings with null bytes in them can be represented.
in other words, any Python string can be passed directly to any
C function that expects a null terminated string, without having
to copy it to a separate buffer.
</F>
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