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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
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| Overview |
General information about Structured Storage. |
| Using Structured Storage |
Using information for Structured Storage. |
| Reference |
Documentation of Structured Storage specific interfaces, functions, structures, and enumerations. |
| Samples |
Code examples written in C++. For more information, see Names in IStorage, Property Set Header, Section, Storing Property Sets, and Using Structured Storage. |