Differences between C and C++ - strings
January 26, 2025, by Slobodan Dmitrovic
In this article, we give an overview on how to define and manipulate strings in C++ as compared to the C way of handling character arrays.
Strings in C
In C, we represent strings through character arrays and pointers.
Strings in C++
In C++, the idiomatic way of representing and manipulating a string is through the std::string
type declared inside a <string>
header file.
The general syntax is:
std::string s = "Sample string value";
Strings as function arguments
When used as a function argument, the string is usually passed through const-reference.
void myfunction(const std::string& arg);
To pass a std::string
argument to a function accepting a const char*
parameter:
void myfunction(const char* arg);
We use the string's .c_str()
member function:
myfunction(mystring.c_str());
String manipulation in C++
The std::string
type is a class that implements many useful operators and member functions, allowing for easy string manipulation in C++.

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