Operators for Strings

As I've said before WCM C++ has some extensions for more convenient work with strings. In pure C++ strings are just arrays of characters. In WCM C++ advanced users can also work with arrays of characters but they are converted to strings immediately after most of the operations. For example you can use operator + to concatenate (or merge) two strings together. Please keep in mind that the example below is impossible in pure C++:

void Scene1 ()

{

string sFirstName = "Bill";

string sLastName = "Gates";

Text Name ( "His name is: " + sFirstName + " " + sLastName );

Name.SetVisible ( true );

// we do not necessary need to have the last statement

// here, because if the cartoon length is zero it is

// automatically extended to one second

SetTime ( 1.0 );

}

It is also legal in WCM C++ to use operator + between strings and integers, doubles, and characters. But please keep in mind that while these operations are also enabled in classic C++, only in WCM C++ you can use them to concatenate strings. In classic C++ they mean different thing. Here is an example of how you can concatenate string with other values and variables:

void Scene1 ()

{

int iHour = 11;

int iMinute = 59;

string sTime = iHour + ":" + iMinute + ':' + 2.5;

Text Time ( sTime );

Time.SetVisible ( true );

SetTime ( 1.0 );

}

Please keep in mind that the order of operations does matter. In our example we first concatenate iHour and ":" . As a result we receive a string and then concatenate it with iMinute and so on. But if we use it like this:

string sTime = iHour + ':' + iMinute + ":" + 2.5;

then the first operation happens between iHour and ':' . And ':' is not the same thing as ":" . This is a character. As a result of this operation we will receive another character as I mentioned in previous section of this book. Operator + can be used in WCM C++ for concatenation only when at least one operand is a strings. For example this code:

string sNumbers = 1 + 2 + "3";

will assign "33 " to sNumbers , because 1 + 2 is an operation between integers and the result of this operation is 3 . But the code below:

string sNumbers = 1 + ( 2 + "3" );

will assign "123" to sNumbers , because there is at least one string operand in every operation.