Thread: Initialize char array with string

Can I do something like this in C++:

Code:

string line;
char sentence[];

cout << "Please enter a string: ";
cin >> line;

sentence = line;

Can I do something like this in C++

The last part is not correct but you can have something like

Code:

string line;
char *sentence;

 
cout << "Please enter a string: ";
cin >> line;
 
sentence = line.c_str();

I was doing that and get the following:

cannot convert from 'const char *' to 'char *'

If you really want a C-string copy of a string for some reason, I prefer this:

Code:

#include <string>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
    string line = "Some string from somewhere\n";

    char *sentence = new char [line.length() + 1];

    size_t sentence_length = line.copy(sentence, line.length() - 1);

    sentence[sentence_length] = '\0';

    cout << "The sentence is " << sentence_length << " characters long.\n";
    cout << "sentence=\"" << sentence << "\"\n";   
    cout << "Make whatever copies you want! Here\'s a substring!\n";

    sentence_length = line.copy(sentence, 6, 5);
    sentence[sentence_length] = '\0';
    
    cout << "The sentence is " << sentence_length << " characters long.\n";
    cout << "sentence=\"" << sentence << "\"\n";

    delete[] sentence;
    sentence = 0;
}

Run the code, see for yourself.

Why is no one in this thread using smart pointers?!?!?!

OP, for reference, a smart pointer is simply a type where you construct it with a pointer and when the smart pointer goes out of scope, the memory is automatically freed.

Basically, it's like:

Code:

std::unique_ptr<char[]> sentence{new char[length_of_string]};

Why is no one in this thread using smart pointers?!?!?!

Them having nothing to do with the question might be a reason.