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basic_string::data

Converts the contents of a string into an array of characters.

const value_type *data( ) const;

Return Value

A pointer to the first element of the array containing the contents of the string, or, for an empty array, a non-null pointer that cannot be dereferenced.

Remarks

Objects of type string belonging to the C++ template class basic_string <char> are not necessarily null terminated. The return type for data is not a valid C-string, because no null character gets appended. The null character ' \0 ' is used as a special character in a C-string to mark the end of the string, but has no special meaning in an object of type string and may be a part of the string object just like any other character.

There is an automatic conversion from const char* into strings, but the string class does not provide for automatic conversions from C-style strings to objects of type basic_string <char>.

The returned string should not be modified, because this could invalidate the pointer to the string, or deleted, because the string has a limited lifetime and is owned by the class string.

Example

// basic_string_data.cpp
// compile with: /EHsc
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

int main( ) 
{
   using namespace std;

   string str1 ( "Hello world" );
   cout << "The original string object str1 is: " 
        << str1 << endl;
   cout << "The length of the string object str1 = " 
        << str1.length ( ) << endl << endl;

   // Converting a string to an array of characters
   const char *ptr1 = 0;
   ptr1= str1.data ( );
   cout << "The modified string object ptr1 is: " << ptr1 
        << endl;
   cout << "The length of character array str1 = " 
        << strlen ( ptr1) << endl << endl;

   // Converting a string to a C-style string
   const char *c_str1 = str1.c_str ( );
   cout << "The C-style string c_str1 is: " << c_str1 
        << endl;
   cout << "The length of C-style string str1 = " 
        << strlen ( c_str1) << endl << endl;
}
The original string object str1 is: Hello world
The length of the string object str1 = 11

The modified string object ptr1 is: Hello world
The length of character array str1 = 11

The C-style string c_str1 is: Hello world
The length of C-style string str1 = 11

Requirements

Header: <string>

Namespace: std

See Also

Reference

basic_string Class