C++ Standard Library: The string Class

The string class is part of the C++ standard library. A string represents a sequence of characters.

To use the string class, #include the header file:

#include <string>

Constructors:

• string ()
  - creates an empty string ("")

• string ( other_string )
  - creates a string identical to other_string

• string ( other_string, position, count )
  - creates a string that contains count characters from other_string, starting at position. If count is missing (only the first two arguments are given), all the characters from other_string, starting at position and going to the end of other_string, are included in the new string.

• string ( count, character )
  - create a string containing character repeated count times

Examples:

	string s1;                //   s1 = ""                

	string s2( "abcdef" );    //   s2 = "abcdef"          

	string s3( s2 );          //   s3 = "abcdef"          

	string s4( s2, 1 );       //   s4 = "bcdef"           

	string s5( s2, 3, 2 );    //   s5 = "de"              

	string s6( 10, '-' );     //   s6 = "----------"      

      

The string class also has a destructor that takes care of freeing the memory storing the characters when the object is destroyed.

Constant Member Functions:

These functions do not modify the string.

• const char * data ()
  - returns a C-style null-terminated string of characters representing the contents of the string

• unsigned int length ()
  - returns the length of the string

• unsigned int size ()
  - returns the length of the string (i.e., same as the length function)

• bool empty ()
  - returns true if the string is empty, false otherwise

Operators Defined for string:

• Assign =
string s1;
string s2;
...
s1 = s2; // the contents of s2 is copied to s1

• Append +=
string s1( "abc" );
string s2( "def" );
...
s1 += s2; // s1 = "abcdef" now

• Indexing []
string s( "def" );
char c = s[2]; // c = 'f' now
s[0] = s[1]; // s = "eef" now

• Concatenate +
string s1( "abc" );
string s2( "def" );
string s3;
...
s3 = s1 + s2; // s3 = "abcdef" now

• Equality ==
string s1( "abc" );
string s2( "def" );
string s3( "abc" );
...
bool flag1 = ( s1 == s2 ); // flag1 = false now
bool flag2 = ( s1 == s3 ); // flag2 = true now

• Inequality !=
  - the inverse of equality

• Comparison <, >, <=, >=
  - performs case-insensitive comparison
  string s1 = "abc";
string s2 = "ABC";
string s3 = "abcdef";
...
bool flag1 = ( s1 < s2 ); // flag1 = false now
bool flag2 = ( s2 < s3 ); // flag2 = true now

Member Functions:

• void swap ( other_string )
  - swaps the contents of this string with the contents of other_string.
  string s1( "abc" );
string s2( "def" );
s1.swap( s2 ); // s1 = "def", s2 = "abc" now
  
  
• string & append ( other_string )
  - appends other_string to this string, and returns a reference to the result string.
  
  
• string & insert ( position, other_string )
  - inserts other_string into this string at the given position, and returns a reference to the result string.
  
  
• string & erase ( position, count )
  - removes count characters from this string, starting with the character at the given position. If count is ommitted (only one argument is given), the characters up to the end of the string are removed. If both position and count are omitted (no arguments are given), the string is cleared (it becomes the empty string). A reference to the result string is returned.
  
  
• unsigned int find ( other_string, position )
  - finds other_string inside this string and returns its position. If position is given, the search starts there in this string, otherwise it starts at the beginning of this string.
  
  
• string substr ( position, count )
  - returns the substring starting at position and of length count from this string