Extracting hour/minute/second/date from String

[dev_1]

Don't use String™. The solutions using C strings (i.e., char arrays) are very efficient.

String will add at least 1600 bytes of FLASH to your program size and 10 bytes per String variable. Although String is fairly easy to use and understand, it will also cause random hangs and crashes as your program runs longer and/or grows in size and complexity. This is due to dynamic memory fragmentation caused by the heap management routines malloc and free.

The most recent example of the pitfalls of String can be seen here.

Related forum discussions:

• Optimizing memory without Strings,

• Is String still bad?

• Dynamic memory forbidden in avionics systems (eevblog)

• Why shouldn't we have dynamic allocated memory... in embedded systems?

• Is using malloc and free a really bad idea on Arduino?

• What is memory fragmentation?

• Struggling with manipulating data from serial buffer
  Commentary from systems experts elsewhere on the net:

• The Evils of Arduino Strings (required reading!)

• Why is malloc harmful in embedded systems?

• Dr Dobbs Journal

• Memory Fragmentation in servers (MSDN)

• Memory Fragmentation, your worst nightmare (nice graphics)
  Cheers,
  /dev