What is use of c_str function?
C++CStringC StrC++ Problem Overview
I understand is c_str
convert a string that may or may not be null-terminated to a null-terminated string.
Is this true? Can you give some examples?
C++ Solutions
Solution 1 - C++
c_str
returns a const char*
that points to a null-terminated string (i.e. a C-style string). It is useful when you want to pass the "contents"¹ of an std::string
to a function that expects to work with a C-style string.
For example, consider this code:
std::string string("Hello world!");
std::size_t pos1 = string.find_first_of('w');
std::size_t pos2 = static_cast<std::size_t>(std::strchr(string.c_str(), 'w') - string.c_str());
if (pos1 == pos2) {
std::printf("Both ways give the same result.\n");
}
Notes:
¹ This is not entirely true because an std::string
(unlike a C string) can contain the \0
character. If it does, the code that receives the return value of c_str()
will be fooled into thinking that the string is shorter than it really is, since it will interpret \0
as the end of the string.
Solution 2 - C++
In C++, you define your strings as
std::string MyString;
instead of
char MyString[20];
.
While writing C++ code, you encounter some C functions which require C string as parameter.
Like below:
void IAmACFunction(int abc, float bcd, const char * cstring);
Now there is a problem. You are working with C++ and you are using std::string
string variables. But this C function is asking for a C string. How do you convert your std::string
to a standard C string?
Like this:
std::string MyString;
// ...
MyString = "Hello world!";
// ...
IAmACFunction(5, 2.45f, MyString.c_str());
This is what c_str()
is for.
Note that, for std::wstring
strings, c_str()
returns a const w_char *
.
Solution 3 - C++
Most OLD c++ and c functions, when deal with strings, use const char*
.
With STL and std::string
, string.c_str()
is introduced to be able to convert from std::string
to const char*
.
That means that if you promise not to change the buffer, you'll be able to use read only string contents. PROMISE = const char*
Solution 4 - C++
In C/C++ programming there are two types of strings: the C strings and the standard strings. With the <string>
header, we can use the standard strings. On the other hand, the C strings are just an array of normal chars. So, in order to convert a standard string to a C string, we use the c_str()
function.
for example
// a string to a C-style string conversion//
const char *cstr1 = str1.c_str();
cout<<"Operation: *cstr1 = str1.c_str()"<<endl;
cout<<"The C-style string c_str1 is: "<<cstr1<<endl;
cout<<"\nOperation: strlen(cstr1)"<<endl;
cout<<"The length of C-style string str1 = "<<strlen(cstr1)<<endl;
And the output will be,
Operation: *cstr1 = str1.c_str()
The C-style string c_str1 is: Testing the c_str
Operation: strlen(cstr1)
The length of C-style string str1 = 17
Solution 5 - C++
c_str() converts a C++ string into a C-style string which is essentially a null terminated array of bytes. You use it when you want to pass a C++ string into a function that expects a C-style string (e.g. a lot of the Win32 API, POSIX style functions, etc).
Solution 6 - C++
It's used to make std::string
interoperable with C code that requires a null terminated char*
.
Solution 7 - C++
Oh must add my own pick here, you will use this when you encode/decode some string obj you transfer between two programs.
Lets say you use base64encode some array in python, and then you want to decode that into c++. Once you have the string you decode from base64decode in c++. In order to get it back to array of float, all you need to do here is
float arr[1024];
memcpy(arr, ur_string.c_str(), sizeof(float) * 1024);
This is pretty common use I suppose.
Solution 8 - C++
const char* c_str() const;
Returns a pointer to an array that contains a null-terminated sequence of characters(i.e., a C - string) representing the current value of the string object.
This array includes the same sequence of characters that make up the value of the string object plus an additional terminating null - character('\0') at the end.
std::string str = "hello";
std::cout << str; // hello
printf("%s", str); // ,²/☺
printf("%s", str.c_str()); // hello