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<concept id="GUID-1F1A6FCD-DA06-5F8B-8F2C-0BAA08DE0041" xml:lang="en"><title>How to

allocate buffers</title><shortdesc>Explains the functions to create and allocate flat and segmented

buffers.</shortdesc><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>

<p>Allocating buffers is simple: use the desired class’s static <codeph>NewL()</codeph> function.

You must specify a <i>granularity</i>, whose meaning is particular to the

buffer type.</p>

<section id="GUID-35823578-F609-41ED-B4A3-00BAE20C4AAC"><title>Flat buffer</title> <p>To allocate a flat buffer, use <codeph>CFlatBuf::NewL()</codeph>.

The granularity in this case means the number of bytes by which the buffer

will be re-allocated, whenever expansion is necessary. If expansion by a greater

amount than this is required, the next highest multiple of the granularity

will be used.</p> <p>In this example, the buffer pointer is pushed to the

cleanup stack for the lifetime of the buffer. If any operation involving the

buffer should leave, the buffer will be destroyed. In real use, the buffer

pointer would be stored as member data, and care should be taken to ensure

that the consequences of a leave are not fatal to the application. For example,

if the buffer is being used to store a word processor document, an attempt

to add a character may fail due to lack of memory. This should never cause

the entire document to be destroyed! Instead, the editing code should function

in such a way that the update is either implemented successfully, or no change

is made to the document.</p> <p>The function <codeph>StandardBufferStuffL()</codeph> is

one which takes a <codeph>CBufBase</codeph> type.</p> <codeblock id="GUID-EF6F9CDB-0D9A-5AB8-9BBC-958DEE5C382E" xml:space="preserve"> // do flat buffer tests

 CBufFlat* flatBuf=CBufFlat::NewL(4);

 CleanupStack::PushL(flatBuf);

 StandardBufferStuffL(flatBuf);

 CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy();</codeblock> </section>

<section id="GUID-0E671A5E-99A9-4ED6-9CA1-519BA5E3A8D9"><title>Segmented buffer</title> <p>A segmented buffer is allocated

in a similar way to a flat buffer. The granularity in this case specifies

the size of each segment. During buffer operations, each segment may contain

less data than the granularity. After a compress, data is optimally distributed

to segments, so that all segments except possibly the last one are full.</p> <p>During

their lifetime, all standard buffer operations can be performed on either

flat or segmented buffers. This is shown in the examples above by calling <codeph>standardBufferStuffL()</codeph> with

both a flat and a segmented buffer pointer. The argument to this function

is a <codeph>CBufBase*</codeph>.</p> <p>The granularities chosen for these

examples are much smaller than would be used in most real applications. </p> <codeblock id="GUID-70676BB5-F806-5860-A96D-77EF0897FFA7" xml:space="preserve"> // do segmented buffer tests

 CBufSeg* segBuf=CBufSeg::NewL(4);

 CleanupStack::PushL(segBuf);

 standardBufferStuffL(segBuf);

 CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy();</codeblock> </section>

</conbody><related-links>

<link>

<desc><xref href="GUID-E3DD768F-752F-5414-9E9A-86E046806903.dita">Space management

and granularity</xref></desc>

</link>

</related-links></concept>