A string_view, in terms of C++, is 100% definitely not a reference. A string_view is not a reference but rather an object. It's an object of a type (namely, `string_view`) that happens to have what we sometimes call "view semantics" or "reference semantics," but it's absolutely not a reference itself. Nor, by the way, is it a pointer (and by the way, a pointer is also an object, not a reference).

Possibly useful elaboration: https://quuxplusone.github.io/blog/2022/12/15/sophist/

In C++, where "reference" and "pointer" both have technical (jargon) meanings, you might still get away with calling string_view a "handle" (to a contiguous bunch of characters). See also https://quuxplusone.github.io/blog/2023/02/04/jargon-treadmi...