std::string to char*

It won't automatically convert (thank god). You'll have to use the method c_str() to get the C string version.

std::string str = "string";
const char *cstr = str.c_str();

Note that it returns a const char *; you aren't allowed to change the C-style string returned by c_str(). If you want to process it you'll have to copy it first:

std::string str = "string";
char *cstr = new char[str.length() + 1];
strcpy(cstr, str.c_str());
// do stuff
delete [] cstr;

Or in modern C++:

std::vector<char> cstr(str.c_str(), str.c_str() + str.size() + 1);

More details here, and here but you can use

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

If I'd need a mutable raw copy of a c++'s string contents, then I'd do this:

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

and later:

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[]!