C++ Access String

You can access individual characters from string using indexing or the .at() method.

Access a character through indexing

You can access the string through index like string[index] element.
index start from 0
First character has 0 index.

Example:


#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main() {

    string str = "Hello";
    // access character from the string
    cout << "First Character " << str[0] << "\n";
    cout << "Last Character " << str[4] << "\n";
    return 0;
}

Output:

First Character H
Last Character o

Access a character through at() method

You can access a string through .at(index) method.
index start from 0 means first character of string has 0 index.

Example:


#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main() {

    string str = "Hello";
    // get the character from the string
    cout << "First Character " << str.at(0) << "\n";
    cout << "Last Character " << str.at(4) << "\n";
    return 0;
}

Explanation:

In the above example, we got the first character through str.at(0) and last character through str.at(4).

Output:

First Character H
Last Character o

C++ Access String – Interview Questions

Q 1: How to access string characters?

Ans: Using index operator [].

Q 2: Does index start from 0?

Ans: Yes.

Q 3: What happens if index is out of range?

Ans: Undefined behavior.

Q 4: Can at() be used?

Ans: Yes, it provides bounds checking.

Q 5: Can string characters be modified?