为了完整起见，不要忘记std::string::copy()。

std::string str = "string";
const size_t MAX = 80;
char chrs[MAX];

str.copy(chrs, MAX);

std::string::copy()不终止NUL。如果你需要确保在C字符串函数中使用NUL终止符:

std::string str = "string";
const size_t MAX = 80;
char chrs[MAX];

memset(chrs, '\0', MAX);
str.copy(chrs, MAX-1);

If you just want a C-style string representing the same content: char const* ca = str.c_str(); If you want a C-style string with new contents, one way (given that you don't know the string size at compile-time) is dynamic allocation: char* ca = new char[str.size()+1]; std::copy(str.begin(), str.end(), ca); ca[str.size()] = '\0'; Don't forget to delete[] it later. If you want a statically-allocated, limited-length array instead: size_t const MAX = 80; // maximum number of chars char ca[MAX] = {}; std::copy(str.begin(), (str.size() >= MAX ? str.begin() + MAX : str.end()), ca);

string不会隐式转换为这些类型，原因很简单，需要这样做通常是一种设计风格。确保你真的需要它。

如果你确实需要一个char*，最好的方法可能是:

vector<char> v(str.begin(), str.end());
char* ca = &v[0]; // pointer to start of vector

更多细节在这里，还有这里，但你可以用

string str = "some string" ;
char *cstr = &str[0];

从c++ 11开始，还可以使用str.data()成员函数，该函数返回char *

string str = "some string" ;
char *cstr = str.data();

如果我需要c++字符串内容的可变原始副本，那么我会这样做:

std::string str = "string";
char* chr = strdup(str.c_str());

后来:

free(chr); 

So why don't I fiddle with std::vector or new[] like anyone else? Because when I need a mutable C-style raw char* string, then because I want to call C code which changes the string and C code deallocates stuff with free() and allocates with malloc() (strdup uses malloc). So if I pass my raw string to some function X written in C it might have a constraint on it's argument that it has to allocated on the heap (for example if the function might want to call realloc on the parameter). But it is highly unlikely that it would expect an argument allocated with (some user-redefined) new[]!

下面是Protocol Buffer的一个更健壮的版本

char* string_as_array(string* str)
{
    return str->empty() ? NULL : &*str->begin();
}

// test codes
std::string mystr("you are here");
char* pstr = string_as_array(&mystr);
cout << pstr << endl; // you are here

char* result = strcpy((char*)malloc(str.length()+1), str.c_str());