How to remove certain characters from a string in C++?

Solution 1:

   string str("(555) 555-5555");

   char chars[] = "()-";

   for (unsigned int i = 0; i < strlen(chars); ++i)
   {
      // you need include <algorithm> to use general algorithms like std::remove()
      str.erase (std::remove(str.begin(), str.end(), chars[i]), str.end());
   }

   // output: 555 5555555
   cout << str << endl;

To use as function:

void removeCharsFromString( string &str, char* charsToRemove ) {
   for ( unsigned int i = 0; i < strlen(charsToRemove); ++i ) {
      str.erase( remove(str.begin(), str.end(), charsToRemove[i]), str.end() );
   }
}
//example of usage:
removeCharsFromString( str, "()-" );

Solution 2:

I want to remove the "(", ")", and "-" characters from the string.

You can use the std::remove_if() algorithm to remove only the characters you specify:

#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <string>

bool IsParenthesesOrDash(char c)
{
    switch(c)
    {
    case '(':
    case ')':
    case '-':
        return true;
    default:
        return false;
    }
}

int main()
{
    std::string str("(555) 555-5555");
    str.erase(std::remove_if(str.begin(), str.end(), &IsParenthesesOrDash), str.end());
    std::cout << str << std::endl; // Expected output: 555 5555555
}

The std::remove_if() algorithm requires something called a predicate, which can be a function pointer like the snippet above.

You can also pass a function object (an object that overloads the function call () operator). This allows us to create an even more general solution:

#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <string>

class IsChars
{
public:
    IsChars(const char* charsToRemove) : chars(charsToRemove) {};

    bool operator()(char c)
    {
        for(const char* testChar = chars; *testChar != 0; ++testChar)
        {
            if(*testChar == c) { return true; }
        }
        return false;
    }

private:
    const char* chars;
};

int main()
{
    std::string str("(555) 555-5555");
    str.erase(std::remove_if(str.begin(), str.end(), IsChars("()- ")), str.end());
    std::cout << str << std::endl; // Expected output: 5555555555
}

You can specify what characters to remove with the "()- " string. In the example above I added a space so that spaces are removed as well as parentheses and dashes.

Solution 3:

remove_if() has already been mentioned. But, with C++0x, you can specify the predicate for it with a lambda instead.

Below is an example of that with 3 different ways of doing the filtering. "copy" versions of the functions are included too for cases when you're working with a const or don't want to modify the original.

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <algorithm>
#include <cctype>
using namespace std;

string& remove_chars(string& s, const string& chars) {
    s.erase(remove_if(s.begin(), s.end(), [&chars](const char& c) {
        return chars.find(c) != string::npos;
    }), s.end());
    return s;
}
string remove_chars_copy(string s, const string& chars) {
    return remove_chars(s, chars);
}

string& remove_nondigit(string& s) {
    s.erase(remove_if(s.begin(), s.end(), [](const char& c) {
        return !isdigit(c);
    }), s.end());
    return s;
}
string remove_nondigit_copy(string s) {
    return remove_nondigit(s);
}

string& remove_chars_if_not(string& s, const string& allowed) {
    s.erase(remove_if(s.begin(), s.end(), [&allowed](const char& c) {
        return allowed.find(c) == string::npos;
    }), s.end());
    return s;
}
string remove_chars_if_not_copy(string s, const string& allowed) {
    return remove_chars_if_not(s, allowed);
}

int main() {
    const string test1("(555) 555-5555");
    string test2(test1);
    string test3(test1);
    string test4(test1);
    cout << remove_chars_copy(test1, "()- ") << endl;
    cout << remove_chars(test2, "()- ") << endl;
    cout << remove_nondigit_copy(test1) << endl;
    cout << remove_nondigit(test3) << endl;
    cout << remove_chars_if_not_copy(test1, "0123456789") << endl;
    cout << remove_chars_if_not(test4, "0123456789") << endl;
}

Solution 4:

Here is a different solution for anyone interested. It uses the new For range in c++11

string str("(555) 555-5555");
string str2="";

for (const auto c: str){

    if(!ispunct(c)){

        str2.push_back(c);
    }
}

str = str2;
//output: 555 5555555
cout<<str<<endl;