How to Convert unsigned char* to std::string in C++?

I have unsigned char*, want to convert it to std::string. Can you please tell me the safest way to do this?


You just needed to cast the unsigned char into a char as the string class doesn't have a constructor that accepts unsigned char:

unsigned char* uc;
std::string s( reinterpret_cast< char const* >(uc) ) ;

However, you will need to use the length argument in the constructor if your byte array contains nulls, as if you don't, only part of the array will end up in the string (the array up to the first null)

size_t len;
unsigned char* uc;
std::string s( reinterpret_cast<char const*>(uc), len ) ;

BYTE* is probably a typedef for unsigned char*, but I can't say for sure. It would help if you tell us what BYTE is.

If BYTE* is unsigned char*, you can convert it to an std::string using the std::string range constructor, which will take two generic Iterators.

const BYTE* str1 = reinterpret_cast<const BYTE*> ("Hello World");
int len = strlen(reinterpret_cast<const char*>(str1));
std::string str2(str1, str1 + len);

That being said, are you sure this is a good idea? If BYTE is unsigned char it may contain non-ASCII characters, which can include NULLs. This will make strlen give an incorrect length.