How do I use std::span and gsl::span to prevent overflows?

In C++, managing arrays and ensuring that you don't access out-of-bounds indices is crucial to avoid buffer overflows. Both std::span from the C++20 standard library and gsl::span from the Guidelines Support Library (GSL) provide a way to create a view over a sequence of elements (like arrays or vectors) while ensuring safety.

std::span and gsl::span provide a lightweight wrapper around existing array data, which checks for bounds at runtime and helps prevent overflow by ensuring that you only access elements within the range of the span.

Here is an example demonstrating how to use both std::span and gsl::span in C++:

#include <iostream> #include <span> // for std::span //#include <gsl/span> // for gsl::span (ensure GSL is installed) void processSpan(std::span<int> s) { for (int i = 0; i < s.size(); ++i) { std::cout << s[i] << " "; } std::cout << std::endl; } int main() { int arr[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}; std::span<int> mySpan(arr); // using std::span processSpan(mySpan); // If using gsl::span (uncomment the lines below) //gsl::span<int> myGSLSpan(arr); //processSpan(myGSLSpan); return 0; }

C++ std::span gsl::span buffer overflow memory management safe array access

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