The new overload was added by P0272R1 for C++17. Neither the paper itself nor the links therein discuss why only data was given new overloads but c_str was not. We can only speculate at this point (unless people involved in the discussion chime in), but I’d like to offer the following points for consideration:
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Even just adding the overload to
databroke some code; keeping this change conservative was a way to minimize negative impact. -
The
c_strfunction had so far been entirely identical todataand is effectively a “legacy” facility for interfacing code that takes “C string”, i.e. an immutable, null-terminated char array. Since you can always replacec_strbydata, there’s no particular reason to add to this legacy interface.
I realize that the very motivation for P0292R1 was that there do exist legacy APIs that erroneously or for C reasons take only mutable pointers even though they don’t mutate. All the same, I suppose we don’t want to add more to string’s already massive API that absolutely necessary.
One more point: as of C++17 you are now allowed to write to the null terminator, as long as you write the value zero. (Previously, it used to be UB to write anything to the null terminator.) A mutable c_str would create yet another entry point into this particular subtlety, and the fewer subtleties we have, the better.