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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++ String Length

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C++ Special Characters

This chapter

Overview
64

Lessons

138m

Read time

1. C++ Tutorial2. C++ Introduction3. C++ Getting Started4. C++ Syntax5. C++ Statements6. C++ Output (Print Text)7. C++ Output Numbers8. C++ New Lines9. C++ Comments10. C++ Variables11. C++ Declare Multiple Variables12. C++ Identifiers13. C++ Constants14. C++ User Input15. C++ Data Types16. C++ Numeric Data Types17. C++ Boolean Data Types18. C++ Character Data Types19. C++ String Data Types20. C++ auto21. C++ Operators22. C++ Arithmetic Operators23. C++ Assignment Operators24. C++ Comparison Operators25. C++ Logical Operators26. C++ Operator Precedence27. C++ Strings28. C++ String Concatenation29. C++ Numbers and Strings30. C++ String Length31. C++ Access Strings32. C++ Special Characters33. C++ User Input Strings34. C++ String Namespace35. C++ C-Style Strings36. C++ Math37. C++ Booleans38. C++ Boolean Expressions39. C++ If ... Else40. C++ Else41. C++ Else If42. C++ Short Hand If Else43. C++ Nested If44. C++ Logical Operators in Conditions45. C++ Switch46. C++ While Loop47. C++ Do/While Loop48. C++ For Loop49. C++ Nested Loops50. C++ The foreach Loop51. C++ Break and Continue52. C++ Arrays53. C++ Arrays and Loops54. C++ Omit Array Size55. C++ Array Size56. C++ Multi-Dimensional Arrays57. C++ Structures (struct)58. C++ Enumeration (enum)59. C++ Memory Address60. C++ Pointers61. C++ Dereference62. C++ Modify Pointers63. C++ Memory Management64. C++ new and delete

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Access StringsChange String CharactersThe at() function