Quark

A GQuark is a non-zero integer which uniquely identifies a particular string.

A GQuark value of zero is associated to `NULL`.

Given either the string or the `GQuark` identifier it is possible to retrieve the other.

Quarks are used for both [datasets and keyed data lists](datalist-and-dataset.html).

To create a new quark from a string, use [func@GLib.quark_from_string] or [func@GLib.quark_from_static_string].

To find the string corresponding to a given `GQuark`, use [func@GLib.quark_to_string].

To find the `GQuark` corresponding to a given string, use [func@GLib.quark_try_string].

Another use for the string pool maintained for the quark functions is string interning, using [func@GLib.intern_string] or [ func@GLib.intern_static_string]. An interned string is a canonical representation for a string. One important advantage of interned strings is that they can be compared for equality by a simple pointer comparison, rather than using `strcmp()`.

Example: Quarks:

public static int main (string[] args) {
	// ** from_string:

	// Register a new string: Output: ``51``
	Quark q = Quark.from_string ("my-test-str-1");
	print ("my-test-str: %u\n", q);

	// Get the registered quark: Output: ``51``
	q = Quark.from_string ("my-test-str-1");
	print ("my-test-str: %u\n", q);


	// ** try_string:

	// Known string: Output: ``51``
	q = Quark.try_string ("my-test-str-1");
	print ("my-test-str: %u\n", q);

	// Unknown string: Output: ``0``
	q = Quark.try_string ("my-test-str-UNKNOWN");
	print ("my-test-str: %u\n", q);

	return 0;
}

valac --pkg glib-2.0 GLib.Quark.vala