Many C++ programmers think that the interface of the std::basic_string [1] class template could be a bit more elaborate. Some of them have created their own string utilities component. This is mine!

This is not as fancy and as complete as the Boost String Algorithms Library. I provide only a few functions that I use more frequently. In addition, although my implementation is generic, it's not as generic as Boost's, since I assume that all string types are an instance of the std::basic_string class template. However, there might still be a couple of good reasons for you to use it.

• If you're working only with ASCII [2], there are versions of the functions which accept any type that is an instance of std::basic_string parameterized by char and std::char_traits<char> as the first two template arguments (the allocator doesn't matter). These versions don't use C++ localization mechanisms, but a conversion table. This is usually faster because there are no calls to virtual functions from the standard facets. Of course, for any other character set, you can use versions that accept a std::locale object.    

• The other reason is simply if you're not using Boost in your application and you don't want to get the whole Boost Library just because of a few string algorithms.

I keep the same interface (and headers) from the Boost String Algorithms Library. Below is what I have so far.

Functions in header case_conv.hpp:
- to_upper
- to_upper_copy
- to_lower
- to_lower_copy

Functions in header trim.hpp:
- trim_left
- trim_left_copy
- trim_right
- trim_right_copy
- trim
- trim_copy

Functions in header predicate.hpp:
- starts_with
- istarts_with
- ends_with
- iends_with
- contains
- icontains

Header string.hpp includes all headers above.

Download: basic_string_utils.zip.

[1] For those who don't know, both std::string and std::wstring are instances of the std::basic_string class template.

[2] I mean the actual 7-bit ASCII and not extensions of it like, for example, the ISO-8859-x series.