Best way to store data in C++

Question

I'm just learning C++, just started to mess around with QT, and I am sitting here wondering how most applications save data? Is there an industry standard? Do they store it in a XML file, text file, SQLite? What about sensitive data that say accounting software would need to save? I'm just interested in learning what the best practices for this are.

Thanks

Answer 1

This question is way too broad. The only answer is it depends on the nature of the particular application and the data, and whether or not it is written in C++ has very little to do with it.

For example, user-configurable application settings are often stored in text files, but on Windows they are typically stored in the Registry. Accounting applications typically keep their data in a database of some sort.