Purpose

Structured Storage provides file and data persistence in COM by handling a single file as a structured collection of objects known as storages and streams.

The purpose of Structured Storage is to reduce the performance penalties and overhead associated with storing separate objects in a single file. Structured Storage provides a solution by defining how to handle a single file entity as a structured collection of two types of objects—storages and streams—through a standard implementation called Compound Files. This enables the user to interact with, and manage, a compound file as if it were a single file rather than a nested hierarchy of separate objects.

Where Applicable

Structured Storage can be used on Microsoft COM-based operating systems.

Developer Audience

The Structured Storage documentation is intended for experienced C and C++ programmers and COM-based system developers.

Structured Storage primarily supports C and C++ programming languages, however any COM-based technology will also support any programming language that utilizes interface pointers.

A solid understanding of COM technologies is prerequisite to the developmental use of Structured Storage.

Run-Time Requirements

For more information about which operating systems are required to use a particular API element, see the Requirements section of the documentation for the element.

In This Section

See Also

The Component Object Model

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Build date: 11/1/2007