C String literals: Where do they go?

Posted by Chris Cooper on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Chris Cooper
Published on 2010-04-07T04:11:10Z Indexed on 2010/04/07 4:13 UTC
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I have read a lot of posts about "string literals" on SO, most of which have been about best-practices, or where the literal is NOT located in memory.

I am interested in where the string DOES get allocated/stored, etc.

I did find one intriguing answer here, saying:

Defining a string inline actually embeds the data in the program itself and cannot be changed (some compilers allow this by a smart trick, don't bother).

but, it had to do with C++, not to mention that it says not to bother.

I am bothering. =D

So my question is, again, where and how is my string literal kept? Why should I not try to alter it? Does the implementation vary by platform? Does anyone care to elaborate on the "smart trick?"

Thanks for any explanations.

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