ISO C++11 does not allow conversion from string to char

Question

From what I read here, you can't do :

char *delegates[]={"IN",NULL};

it has to be this so you do not get a warning :

const char *delegates[]={"IN",NULL};

But I have some function that I can't change that looks like :

void Interpreter::setBuiltIns(char *builtins[],int num  )

This function is not going to change the array in any way.

If I try to pass it the strings array with :

myclass.setBuiltIns(delegates, 1);

I get an error, but if I remove the const from delegate there is no error but I get the ISO warning .

How can I keep this function, and pass it the array without a warning/error.

Answer 1

Depends. If it is guaranteed that setBuiltIns does not modify the strings, you can just const_cast the const away.

Otherwise, choose the always safe path and copy the literals into new buffers.

---

As requested, an example for the first variant:

void fun(char *builtins[]){}

int main () {
    const char *delegates[] = {"IN",nullptr};
    fun(const_cast<char **>(delegates));
}