vector<bool> push_back

I have a piece of code which converts a string into a vector<bool>. To do that, I have to use push_back() 8 times for every byte, and it can get into millions of bytes. Is there a way I can speed this up?

//edit: Also, how are bool's represented in memory? Can I do a union between chars and bools and do it that way?

Also, how are bool's represented in memory? Can I do a union between chars and bools and do it that way?

Straight from The C++ Standard Library by Nicolai Josuttis, 6.2.6 Class vector<bool>:

For Boolean elements of a vector, the C++ standard library provides a specialization of vector. The goal is to have a version that is optimized to use less size than a usual implementation of vector for type bool. Such a usual implementation would reserve at least 1 byte for each element. The vector<bool> specialization usually uses internally only 1 bit for an element, so it is typically eight times smaller. Note that such an optimization also has a snag: In C++, the smallest addressable value must have a size of at least 1 byte. Thus, such a specialization of a vector needs special handling for references and iterators.

As a result, a vector<bool> does not meet all requirements of other vectors (for example, a vector<bool>::reference is not a true lvalue and vector<bool>::iterator is not a random access iterator). Therefore, template code might work for vectors of any type except bool. In addition, vector<bool> might perform slower than normal implementations because element operations have to be transformed into bit operations. However, how vector<bool> is implemented is implementation specific. Thus, the performance (speed and memory) might differ.

Is there a way to push more than one bit at once into the vector?

Never use vector<bool>. It sucks. Use deque<bool> instead and deal efficiently with real bools and treat it as any other container that supports random access iterators.

The bitset may be of use: http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/bitset.html
The only downside I see is it's size cannot be changed.