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The STL from the Inside · 4:06
Bits and Bytes
Working at the level of raw bytes: why std::stod is the wrong way to read a price off the wire (it copies and obeys the locale, turning 101.25 into 101 in German), how std::from_chars parses in place (on this Mac's library as integer cents), what std::bit_cast shows inside a double, how <bit> and a power-of-two size turn a division into a mask, byte order, and the attributes [[nodiscard]], [[likely]] and [[no_unique_address]].
You will learn
- Parse numbers from a byte buffer with std::from_chars, without copies or locale surprises
- Inspect a value's bits safely with std::bit_cast and explain strict aliasing
- Use <bit> and power-of-two sizes to replace % with a mask
- Explain endianness and what [[nodiscard]], [[likely]] and [[no_unique_address]] do