Question

What is the correct/best/simplest way to convert a c-style string to a std::string.

The conversion should accept a max_length, and terminate the string at the first \0 char, if this occur before max_length charter.

Answer 1

This page on string::string gives two potential constructors that would do what you want:

string ( const char * s, size_t n );
string ( const string& str, size_t pos, size_t n = npos );

Example:

#include<cstdlib>
#include<cstring>
#include<string>
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

int main(){

    char* p= (char*)calloc(30, sizeof(char));
    strcpy(p, "Hello world");

    string s(p, 15);
    cout << s.size() << ":[" << s << "]" << endl;
    string t(p, 0, 15);
    cout << t.size() << ":[" << t << "]" << endl;

    free(p);
    return 0;
}

Output:

15:[Hello world]
11:[Hello world]

The first form considers p to be a simple array, and so will create (in our case) a string of length 15, which however prints as a 11-character null-terminated string with cout << .... Probably not what you’re looking for.

The second form will implicitly convert the char* to a string, and then keep the maximum between its length and the n you specify. I think this is the simplest solution, in terms of what you have to write.