Question

I’m currently learning C++ and i run into the simple problem of converting an int to a string. I’ve worked around it using:

string IntToString(int Number)
{
    stringstream Stream;
    Stream << Number;
    return Stream.str();
}

but though it would be more elegant to use something like:

int x = 5;
string y = x.toString();

but how do i add the toString() method to a built in type?

or am i missing something totally fundamental?

Answer 1

I would not derive any class from basic_string/string. This is not recommended and no method in string is virtual, it does not have a virtual destructor (hence deriving could reault in memory leaks)

Make it pretty for yourself:

You could create a static class (class containing only static methods) in order keep it all in the one place. Use method overloading for int, float, double, etc.

class Converter {
   private:
       Converter() {}

   public:
     static string toString(int i) {
        ... your implementation ...
     }

     static string toString(float f) {
        ... same but floats.
     }
     .... other overloads ....
};

... somewhere else in your code ....

string c = Converter::toString(5);