Question

I currently have a method called getResult which returns const char* now I am doing something like this

if(getResult=="Something")
{
  ...
}

However it seems this type of comparison doesn’t work. Isn’t “Something” also a const char pointer ? or in this case are the addresses being compared?

Answer 1

If getResult is a method (member function) you need to call it to compare the result, so you probably want:

if (something.getResult() == std::string("Something"))
  // ...

If, on the other hand, getResult is really a pointer to char (or pointer to const char), you need to convert one of the things you’re comparing to string before the comparison):

if (getResult == std::string("Something"))

or:

if (std::string(getResult) == "something))

IMO, this should almost never be necessary — instead of starting with a pointer to [const] char, then converting, you should normally use std::string throughout.