Converting a C-style string to a C++ std::string

Question

What is the best way to convert a C-style string to a C++ std::string? In the past I\'ve done it using stringstreams. Is there a better way?

Answer 1

In general (without declaring new storage) you can just use the 1-arg constructor to change the c-string into a string rvalue :

string xyz = std::string("this is a test") + 
             std::string(" for the next 60 seconds ") + 
             std::string("of the emergency broadcast system.");

However, this does not work when constructing the string to pass it by reference to a function (a problem I just ran into), e.g.

void ProcessString(std::string& username);
ProcessString(std::string("this is a test"));   // fails

You need to make the reference a const reference:

void ProcessString(const std::string& username);
ProcessString(std::string("this is a test"));   // works.