String

A String value is a character vector — free-form text stored inline, byte for byte. Unlike a symbol it is not interned, so strings suit unique or high-cardinality text.

Assume a live runtime

use rayforce::{Runtime, Value, Str};
let _rt = Runtime::new()?;

Atoms

let s = Value::string("a longer string value");
assert_eq!(s.as_string()?, "a longer string value");

// short and empty strings round-trip too
assert_eq!(Value::string("hi").as_string()?, "hi");
assert_eq!(Value::string("").as_string()?, "");

The empty string is the string null:

assert!(Value::string("").is_atom_null());

The Str wrapper

Because a bare &str converts to a symbol through ToValue, the Str wrapper exists to ask for a string atom explicitly in the conversion path.

use rayforce::ToValue;
assert_eq!(Str("str").to_value().as_string()?, "str");

So Value::string("x") and Str("x").to_value() produce the same string atom, while "x".to_value() produces a symbol.

Vectors

Value::str_vec builds a vector of strings of any length.

let strs = Value::str_vec(&["hello", "a longer value here", ""]);
assert_eq!(strs.len(), 3);
assert_eq!(strs.get(0)?.as_string()?, "hello");
assert_eq!(strs.get(1)?.as_string()?, "a longer value here");

Choose symbol or string deliberately

Reach for a symbol when the same values repeat (keys, tickers, categories); reach for a string when text is mostly unique or arbitrarily long. See the comparison table on the Symbol page.