Converting String to Cstring in C++

Question

I have a string to convert, string = \"apple\" and want to put that into a C string of this style, char *c, that holds {a, p, p, l, e, \'\\0\

Answer 1

.c_str() returns a const char*. If you need a mutable version, you will need to produce a copy yourself.

Answer 2

vector<char> toVector( const std::string& s ) {
  string s = "apple";  
  vector<char> v(s.size()+1);
  memcpy( &v.front(), s.c_str(), s.size() + 1 );
  return v;
}
vector<char> v = toVector(std::string("apple"));

// what you were looking for (mutable)
char* c = v.data();

.c_str() works for immutable. The vector will manage the memory for you.

Answer 3

string name;
char *c_string;

getline(cin, name);

c_string = new char[name.length()];

for (int index = 0; index < name.length(); index++){
    c_string[index] = name[index];
}
c_string[name.length()] = '\0';//add the null terminator at the end of
                              // the char array

I know this is not the predefined method but thought it may be useful to someone nevertheless.