std:: aligned_storage

Provides the nested type type , which satisfies TrivialType and StandardLayoutType and suitable for use as uninitialized storage for any object whose size is at most Len and whose alignment requirement is a divisor of Align .

The default value of Align is the most stringent (the largest) alignment requirement for any object whose size is at most Len . If the default value is not used, Align must be the value of alignof ( T ) for some type T , or the behavior is undefined.

The behavior is undefined if Len == 0 .

It is implementation-defined whether any extended alignment is supported.

If the program adds specializations for std::aligned_storage , the behavior is undefined.

Member types

Helper types

Notes

The type defined by std::aligned_storage<>::type can be used to create uninitialized memory blocks suitable to hold the objects of given type, optionally aligned stricter than their natural alignment requirement, for example on a cache or page boundary.

As with any other uninitialized storage, the objects are created using placement new and destroyed with explicit destructor calls.

Possible implementation

Except for default argument, aligned_storage is expressible in terms of alignas:

template<std::size_t Len, std::size_t Align = /* default alignment not implemented */>
struct aligned_storage
{
    struct type
    {
        alignas(Align) unsigned char data[Len];
    };
};

Example

#include <cstddef>
#include <iostream>
#include <new>
#include <string>
#include <type_traits>
 
template<class T, std::size_t N>
class static_vector
{
    // Properly aligned uninitialized storage for N T's
    std::aligned_storage_t<sizeof(T), alignof(T)> data[N];
    std::size_t m_size = 0;
 
public:
    // Create an object in aligned storage
    template<typename ...Args> void emplace_back(Args&&... args)
    {
        if (m_size >= N) // Possible error handling
            throw std::bad_alloc{};
 
        // Construct value in memory of aligned storage using inplace operator new
        ::new(&data[m_size]) T(std::forward<Args>(args)...);
        ++m_size;
    }
 
    // Access an object in aligned storage
    const T& operator[](std::size_t pos) const
    {
        // Note: std::launder is needed after the change of object model in P0137R1
        return *std::launder(reinterpret_cast<const T*>(&data[pos]));
    }
 
    // Destroy objects from aligned storage
    ~static_vector()
    {
        for (std::size_t pos = 0; pos < m_size; ++pos)
            // Note: std::launder is needed after the change of object model in P0137R1
            std::destroy_at(std::launder(reinterpret_cast<T*>(&data[pos])));
    }
};
 
int main()
{
    static_vector<std::string, 10> v1;
    v1.emplace_back(5, '*');
    v1.emplace_back(10, '*');
    std::cout << v1[0] << '\n' << v1[1] << '\n';
}

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See also