Copy of const char * using std::string constructor

Question

is this code ok?

void SomeClass :: foo(const char * _name) {
     //name is of type const char *
     name = std::string(_name).c_str();
}

Answer 1

If you don't do anything with name, it's perfectly safe. Otherwise, it will probably fail at some random point in the future. The C-style pointer returned by the c_str() member function is only valid for as long as the temporary std::string exists (and as long as you don't mutate it, which you haven't in this case). As soon as the enclosing block scope exits, the temporary is destroyed, and any use of name puts you into the twilight zone.

As others have suggested, you should turn name into a std::string. Alternatively — if you really need it to stay a char * — you could just write name = strdup(_name).