std::string to float or double

std::string num = "0.6";
double temp = ::atof(num.c_str());

Does it for me, it is a valid C++ syntax to convert a string to a double.

You can do it with the stringstream or boost::lexical_cast but those come with a performance penalty.

Ahaha you have a Qt project ...

QString winOpacity("0.6");
double temp = winOpacity.toDouble();

Extra note:
If the input data is a const char*, QByteArray::toDouble will be faster.

The Standard Library (C++11) offers the desired functionality with std::stod :

std::string  s  = "0.6"
std::wstring ws = "0.7"
double d  = std::stod(s);
double dw = std::stod(ws);

Generally for most other basic types, see <string>. There are some new features for C strings, too. See <stdlib.h>

Lexical cast is very nice.

#include <boost/lexical_cast.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using std::endl;
using std::cout;
using std::string;
using boost::lexical_cast;

int main() {
    string str = "0.6";
    double dub = lexical_cast<double>(str);
    cout << dub << endl;
}

You can use std::stringstream:

   #include <sstream>
   #include <string>
   template<typename T>
   T StringToNumber(const std::string& numberAsString)
   {
      T valor;

      std::stringstream stream(numberAsString);
      stream >> valor;
      if (stream.fail()) {
         std::runtime_error e(numberAsString);
         throw e;
      }
      return valor;
   }

Usage:

double number= StringToNumber<double>("0.6");

Yes, with a lexical cast. Use a stringstream and the << operator, or use Boost, they've already implemented it.

Your own version could look like:

template<typename to, typename from>to lexical_cast(from const &x) {
  std::stringstream os;
  to ret;

  os << x;
  os >> ret;

  return ret;  
}