How to initialize an std::string with a length?

Question

If a string's length is determined at compile-time, how can I properly initialize it?

#include <string> int length = 3; string word[length]; //invalid syntax, but doing `string word = "   "` will work word[0] = 'a';  word[1] = 'b'; word[2] = 'c'; 

...so that i can do something like this?

Example: http://ideone.com/FlniGm

My purpose for doing this is because I have a loop to copy characters from certain areas of another string into a new string.

Answer 1

A string is mutable and it's length can changed at run-time. But you can use the "fill constructor" if you must have a specified length: http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/string/string/string/

std::string s6 (10, 'x'); 

s6 now equals "xxxxxxxxxx".

Answer 2

How about the following?

string word; word.resize(3); word[0] = 'a'; word[1] = 'b'; word[2] = 'c'; 

More on resizing a string: http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/string/string/resize/