Is string dynamically allocated?

Question

I have got a quick question. I have the following code:

class Class1
{
    Class1();
    ~Class1();
    void func1();
private:
    char* c;

}

void Class1::func1()
{
    string s = "something";
    this->c = s.c_str();
}

will c store "something" when func1() finishes?

Answer 1

No. It will invoke undefined behavior instead. (if you dereference the pointer, anyway.) Since s is a block-scope object with automatic storage duration, it is destroyed when the function returns, and that renders the pointer returned by .c_str() invalid.

---

Why not use an std::string member variable instead?

Answer 2

s is a local variable of type std::string in Class::func1. Once func1() finishes, the string s will go out of scope.

Any pointers you have with the address of s stored in them will become dangling pointers.