RopeString

A C++ Rope-String is a string with efficient insert/erase/replace in middle. It provides following classes

• Rope::Node - the node of tree (Rope.Node module, Node.h header)
• Rope::Tree - the Tree with core integration API (Rope.Tree module, Tree.h header)
• Rope::String - The String class (Rope.String module, String.h header)

Key properties

• Non-contiguous storage (rope) consisting of leaf chunks connected by a balanced tree.
• Many std::basic_string-like constructors and member functions for familiarity.
• Forward and reverse iterators over characters.
• Efficient insert/erase/replace operations in the middle of a large string.
• Works with multiple character types (char, wchar_t, char8_t, char16_t, char32_t).

Installation

You can use this library in three common ways.

1. add_subdirectory (recommended for vendoring)

• Copy or add this repository as a subdirectory.
• In your CMakeLists.txt:

  add_subdirectory(external/RopeString)
  target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE Rope)
  target_include_directories(your_target PRIVATE external/RopeString/include)

2. FetchContent

• Fetch content:

  include(FetchContent)
  FetchContent_Declare(
    RopeString
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/Sinfolke/Rope-String
    # GIT_TAG        <commit-or-tag>
  )

• Make available:

  FetchContent_MakeAvailable(RopeString)
  target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE Rope)

3. find_package (if you have installed it)

• Configure and install the library somewhere first:

  cmake -S . -B build
  cmake --build build --target install
  

• Then in your project:

  find_package(Rope CONFIG REQUIRED)
  target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE Rope)

Include the header in your sources:

#include <RopeString.h>

Or import C++20 module

import Rope.String;

Quick start

#include <RopeString.h>
#include <iostream>

int main() {
    Rope::String s = "Hello";
    s.append(", World!");
    s.insert(5, 1, '!');
    s.erase(0, 1);
    auto sub = s.substr(1, 5);

    // Iteration (forward)
    for (auto ch : s) std::cout << ch;
    std::cout << "\n";

    // Obtain a contiguous C string view (allocates)
    auto c = s.c_str();         // unique_ptr<CharT[]>; zero-terminated copy
    std::cout << c.get() << "\n";

    // or print directly to buffer
    s.print(std::cout);
}

API overview and std::string compatibility

The API aims to be familiar to users of std::basic_string, but due to rope storage there are important differences. Below I've listed all methods with information you to note. For exact signatures please see include/BasicString.h.

Access

1. at()
2. operator[]
3. back()
4. front()
5. data()
6. c_str()

• data() returns hold Rope::Tree class
• c_str() returns std::unique_ptr<CharT[]>, holding C like string on heap. Note that it is more expensive than std::string::c_str() as it requires concat entire string

Iterators

1. begin()
2. end()
3. cbegin()
4. cend()
5. rbegin()
6. rend()
7. rcbegin()
8. rcend()

• Iteration is linear but may step across leaves
• iterator category is forward, not random-access.

Capacity

1. empty()
2. size()
3. length()

Modifiers

1. clear()
2. insert()
3. insert_range()
4. erase()
5. push_back()
6. pop_back()
7. append
8. append_range
9. opeartor+=
10. replace
11. replace_with_range
12. copy
13. resize
14. resize_and_overwrite
15. swap

Search

1. find()
2. rfind()
3. find_first_of()
4. find_first_not_of()
5. find_last_of() 6 find_last_not_of()

Operations

1. compare()
2. starts_with()
3. ends_with()
4. contains()
5. substr()

Building the tests (optional)

This repository includes small test executables in tests/ driven by CMake targets:

• access_test
• assignment_test
• capacity_test
• iterators_test
• modifiers_test
• operations_test
• search_test

Generic CMake usage:

cmake -S . -B build cmake --build build --target iterators_test && ./build/iterators_test

In CLion, simply build and run the desired test target from the IDE.