Std::string to std::array?

Question

What's the recommended way to convert a string to an array? I'm looking for something like:

template<class T, size_t N, class V>
std::array<T, N> to_array(const V& v)
{
    assert(v.size() == N);
    std::array<T, N> d;
    std::copy(v.begin(), v.end(), d.data());
    return d;
}

Does C++11 or Boost provide something like this? How do others do this? Seems silly having to copy/paste this function myself every time I need it in a project.

Answer 1

If you really only want convert string to an array, just use .c_str() (and work on char*). It isn't exactly array<> but may suit your needs.

Answer 2

Simply calling:

std::copy(v.begin(), v.end(), d.data());

is The way to convert a string to the array. I don't see any advantage of wrapping this into a dedicated "utility" function.

In addition, unless the compiler optimizes it, the performance may degrade with your function: the data will be copied second time when returning the array.