String Types
Author: JTC1/SC22/WG9/ARG, by Randall Brukardt, ARG Editor

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# 3.6.3 String Types

#### Static Semantics

1
A one-dimensional array type whose component type is a character type is called a string type.
2/2
There are three predefined string types, String, Wide_String, and Wide_Wide_String, each indexed by values of the predefined subtype Positive; these are declared in the visible part of package Standard:
3
subtype Positive is Integer range 1 .. Integer'Last;
4/2
type String is array(Positive range <>) of Character;
type Wide_String is array(Positive range <>) of Wide_Character;
type Wide_Wide_String is array(Positive range <>) of Wide_Wide_Character;
NOTES
5
51 String literals (see 2.6 and 4.2) are defined for all string types. The concatenation operator & is predefined for string types, as for all nonlimited one-dimensional array types. The ordering operators <, <=, >, and >= are predefined for string types, as for all one-dimensional discrete array types; these ordering operators correspond to lexicographic order (see 4.5.2).

#### Examples

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Examples of string objects:
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Stars : String(1 .. 120) := (1 .. 120 => '*' );
Question : constant String := "How many characters?";
-- Question'First = 1, Question'Last = 20
-- Question'Length = 20 (the number of characters)
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Ask_Twice : String := Question & Question; -- constrained to (1..40)
Ninety_Six : constant Roman := "XCVI"; -- see 3.5.2 and 3.6

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