Is it reasonable to use std::basic_string as a contiguous buffer when targeting C++03?

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I’d consider it quite safe to assume that std::string allocates its storage contiguously.

At the present time, all known implementations of std::string allocate space contiguously.

Moreover, the current draft of C++ 0x (N3000) [Edit: Warning, direct link to large PDF] requires that the space be allocated contiguously (ยง21.4.1/5):

The char-like objects in a
basic_string object shall be stored
contiguously. That is, for any
basic_string object s, the identity
&*(s.begin() + n) == &*s.begin() + n
shall hold for all values of n such
that 0 <= n < s.size().

As such, the chances of a current or future implementation of std::string using non-contiguous storage are essentially nil.

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