How do I increment letters in c++?

Question

I'm creating a Caesar Cipher in c++ and i can't figure out how to increment a letter.

I need to increment the letter by 1 each time and return the next letter in the alphabet. Something like the following to add 1 to 'a' and return 'b'.

char letter[] = "a";
cout << letter[0] +1;

Answer 1

This snippet should get you started. letter is a char and not an array of chars nor a string.

The static_cast ensures the result of 'a' + 1 is treated as a char.

> cat caesar.cpp          
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    char letter = 'a';
    std::cout << static_cast<char>(letter + 1) << std::endl;
}

> g++ caesar.cpp -o caesar
> ./caesar                
b

Watch out when you get to 'z' (or 'Z'!) and good luck!