How to cast vector to char*

Question

I have a buffer like this:

vector buf

How can I cast it to char*?

If I do:

(char *)buf
         


        

Answer 1

reinterpret_cast (&buf[0]);

The vector guarantees that its elements occupy contiguous memory. So the "data" you seek is actually the address of the first element (beware of vector , this trick will fail with it). Also, why isn't your buffer vector so that you don't need to reinterpret_cast?

Update for C++11

reinterpret_cast(buf.data());