problem with const, string pointers

[cdf]

if i have a class method prototype
const char* gets( ) const
how do i get it to access a (private member) string and return that string?

i have this printf("%s", c.gets()); but it gives me a segmentation fault error at runtime

[shacktar]

If your class has a std::string m as a member, then you can have gets return

m.c_str()

The segmentation fault is probably because the C-string that gets is returning is not null terminated.

[moorecm]

Or it was the address of a temporary that has gone out of scope. For example:

const char * f() {
    string s = "asdf";
    return s.c_str();
}
//...
const char * p = f(); // Oh noes!  p is dangling because string s went out of scope (doesn't exist anymore).