Question

If I do the following:

string* create_array(){
    string* arr = new string[2];
    string s = "hello";
    string s2 = "world";

    arr[0] = s;
    arr[1] = s2;
    return arr;
}

is the assignment of arr[0] = s making a copy of s and then putting that copy in the memory address that arr[0] points to? or is it making arr[0] refer to the local stack variable s, and in this case if I use the array returned from this function calling arr[0] will have unpredictable behaviour?

Thanks

Answer 1

is the assignment of arr[0] = s making a copy of s

Yes.

and then putting that copy in the memory address that arr[0] points to?

No. arr[0] is a string, it doesn’t point to anything. (internally, it probably has a char* somewhere, but that’s unique per instance of std::string and is an implementation detail, I added this comment just to be complete)

or is it making arr[0] refer to the local stack variable s, and in this case if I use the array returned from this function calling arr[0] will have unpredictable behaviour?

Nope, it makes a copy.