CppCoreGuidelines C.180 用 union 节省内存

union Value {
    int x;
    double d;
};

Value v = { 123 };  // now v holds an int
cout << v.x << '\n';    // write 123
v.d = 987.654;  // now v holds a double
cout << v.d << '\n';    // write 987.654

// Short-string optimization

constexpr size_t buffer_size = 16; // Slightly larger than the size of a pointer

class Immutable_string {
public:
    Immutable_string(const char* str) :
        size(strlen(str))
    {
        if (size < buffer_size)
            strcpy_s(string_buffer, buffer_size, str);
        else {
            string_ptr = new char[size + 1];
            strcpy_s(string_ptr, size + 1, str);
        }
    }

    ~Immutable_string()
    {
        if (size >= buffer_size)
            delete[] string_ptr;
    }

    const char* get_str() const
    {
        return (size < buffer_size) ? string_buffer : string_ptr;
    }

private:
    // If the string is short enough, we store the string itself
    // instead of a pointer to the string.
    union {
        char* string_ptr;
        char string_buffer[buffer_size];
    };

    const size_t size;
};

int main()
{
    Immutable_string s1{"1234567890"};
    cout << s1.get_str() << endl;
    Immutable_string s2{"12345678901234567890"};
    cout << s2.get_str() << endl;
}