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C++•C++ Tutorial

C++ Access Strings

Access Strings

You can access the characters in a string by referring to its index number inside square brackets [] .

This example prints the first character in myString :

Example

string
myString = "Hello";
cout << myString[0];
// Outputs H

Note

String indexes start with 0: [0] is the first character. [1] is the second character, etc.

This example prints the second character in myString :

Example

string
myString = "Hello";
cout << myString[1];
// Outputs e

To print the last character of a string, you can use the following code:

Example

string
myString = "Hello";
cout << myString[myString.length() - 1];
// Outputs o

Change String Characters

To change the value of a specific character in a string, refer to the index number, and use single quotes:

Example

string
myString = "Hello";
myString[0] = 'J';
cout << myString;
// Outputs Jello instead of Hello

The at() function

The <string> library also has an at() function that can be used to access characters in a string:

Example

string myString = "Hello";
cout << myString; // Outputs Hello
cout << myString.at(0);  // First character
cout << myString.at(1);  // Second character
cout << myString.at(myString.length() - 1);  // Last
character
myString.at(0) = 'J';
cout << myString;  // Outputs Jello

Tip

A list of other useful string functions, can be found in our String Functions Reference .

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C++ Special Characters