Question

string line = "blerdy blah";
for (int i = 0; i < string.size(); i++)
{

    line[i] != "n";
}

With this I get the error “cannot convert from char to const char *”

If I replace the last line with

line[i] != *"n";

It works. I get why in one sense, I’m dereferencing a pointer. What I don’t get is why it’s a pointer in the first place. Is any char written like this actually a pointer to one char somewhere? Like the program has one set of every symbol somewhere and this is what I’m pointing to?

If this is the case, can I do silly things like make the ‘n’ pointer point to something else?

Answer 1

You have to compare char with char in this case:

line[i] != 'n';

When you say *"n" you actually dereference the first element of the char array with n and \0 elements inside it, which gives you n, that’s why it works, but you don’t want to write it like that.