title: Properties of a string class in C++
body: <p>I am working through C++ program design by Cohoon and Davidson. This is what it says about string class attributes (3rd Edition, Page 123): </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Characters that comprise the string</li>
  <li>The number of characters in the string</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>My question is: If we know the characters in the string, does not it implies we already know about number of characters in the string? What is the need to explicitly specify the second attribute? </p>