Convert String to List of chars in C++

In this article, we will discuss different ways to convert a std:;string object to list of characters in C++.

Table Of Contents

Method 1: Using list constructor

In C++, the list class provides a constructor, which accepts a range as arguments i.e. iterators prointing to start and end location of a range. We can pass the start, and end iterators of string to this constructor, it will initialize the list object with the characters in string. Let’s see an example,

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <list>

int main()
{
    std::string strValue = "Sample Text";

    // Initialize a list with characters in string
    std::list<char> listOfChars(strValue.begin(), strValue.end());

    // Print list content
    for(const char& ch: listOfChars)
    {
        std::cout << ch << ", ";
    }
    std::cout<<std::endl;

    return 0;
}

Output:

S, a, m, p, l, e,  , T, e, x, t, 

We converted the string to list of characters.

Method 2: Using STL Algorithm copy()

Create a list object. Then pass following arguments in the STL Algorithm copy().

• Iterator pointing to the start of string.
• Iterator pointing to the end of string
• A back inserter iterator of the list.

It will push all the string characters to the list. Let’s see an example,

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <list>
#include <algorithm>

int main()
{
    std::string strValue = "Sample Text";

    // Create an empty list
    std::list<char> listOfChars;

    // Copy all characters from string to the list
    std::copy(
        strValue.begin(),
        strValue.end(),
        std::back_inserter(listOfChars));


    // Print list content
    for(const char& ch: listOfChars)
    {
        std::cout << ch << ", ";
    }
    std::cout<<std::endl;

    return 0;
}

Output:

S, a, m, p, l, e,  , T, e, x, t, 

We converted the string to list of characters.

Method 3: Using for-loop

Create a list object. Then iterator over all characters in string using a for loop. During iterator, push each character to the list. Let’s see an example,

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <list>

int main()
{
    std::string strValue = "Sample Text";

    // Create an empty list
    std::list<char> listOfChars;

    // Iterate over all characters in string
    for(const char& ch: strValue)
    {
        // Add character to the list
        listOfChars.push_back(ch);
    }

    // Print list content
    for(const char& ch: listOfChars)
    {
        std::cout << ch << ", ";
    }
    std::cout<<std::endl;

    return 0;
}

Output:

S, a, m, p, l, e,  , T, e, x, t, 

We converted the string to list of characters.

Summary

We learned about different ways to convert a string to list of characters in C++. Thanks.