I worked on a Win32 app that used space-padded strings, i.e. the destination string was padded with spaces, but there was still a null on the last byte. You had to use special versions of the string functions for length, copy etc.

I’m not sure why this was - the source base was so old it might have had its origins in Pascal struct behaviour.

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jkfkfkj 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It can perhaps be due to the string originating from a sql database ”char” field, I.e. not ”varchar”. Char fields in databases are space padded.

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egorfine 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think this behavior has its roots in COBOL, not pascal.

	▲	kps 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Which has its roots in punch cards, where pre-computer hardware operated on fixed-sized fields and an unpunched column is equivalent to a space.

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bebe83939 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Perhaps prevent realocation when string size changes? Or aligning cpu cache lines?