[c++] Using strtok with a std::string

It fails because str.c_str() returns constant string but char * strtok (char * str, const char * delimiters ) requires volatile string. So you need to use *const_cast< char > inorder to make it voletile. I am giving you a complete but small program to tokenize the string using C strtok() function.

   #include <iostream>
   #include <string>
   #include <string.h> 
   using namespace std;
   int main() {
       string s="20#6 5, 3";
       // strtok requires volatile string as it modifies the supplied string in order to tokenize it 
       char *str=const_cast< char *>(s.c_str());    
       char *tok;
       tok=strtok(str, "#, " );     
       int arr[4], i=0;    
       while(tok!=NULL){
           arr[i++]=stoi(tok);
           tok=strtok(NULL, "#, " );
       }     
       for(int i=0; i<4; i++) cout<<arr[i]<<endl;


       return 0;
   }

NOTE: strtok may not be suitable in all situation as the string passed to function gets modified by being broken into smaller strings. Pls., ref to get better understanding of strtok functionality.

How strtok works

Added few print statement to better understand the changes happning to string in each call to strtok and how it returns token.

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <string.h> 
using namespace std;
int main() {
    string s="20#6 5, 3";
    char *str=const_cast< char *>(s.c_str());    
    char *tok;
    cout<<"string: "<<s<<endl;
    tok=strtok(str, "#, " );     
    cout<<"String: "<<s<<"\tToken: "<<tok<<endl;   
    while(tok!=NULL){
        tok=strtok(NULL, "#, " );
        cout<<"String: "<<s<<"\t\tToken: "<<tok<<endl;
    }
    return 0;
}

Output:

string: 20#6 5, 3

String: 206 5, 3    Token: 20
String: 2065, 3     Token: 6
String: 2065 3      Token: 5
String: 2065 3      Token: 3
String: 2065 3      Token: 

strtok iterate over the string first call find the non delemetor character (2 in this case) and marked it as token start then continues scan for a delimeter and replace it with null charater (# gets replaced in actual string) and return start which points to token start character( i.e., it return token 20 which is terminated by null). In subsequent call it start scaning from the next character and returns token if found else null. subsecuntly it returns token 6, 5, 3.