[Solved] In C++ why does reference to single character of std::string give a number [closed]

Question

On my Debian/Sid/x86-64 the below program (in source file itsols.cc compiled with the command g++ -Wall itsols.cc -o itsols)

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main(int, char**) {
  std::string s = "Hello";
  std::cout << s[3] << std::endl;
  return 0;
}

displays a single lower-case l (compiled with g++ -Wall itsols.cc -o itsols, both with GCC 4.7.2 and with GCC 4.8.0 and also with GCC 4.6.3)

So I cannot reproduce what you claim (and I believe you are probably wrong, because when you read C++ reference material the operator [] on strings gives a const char& result, which is output using std::cout << as a single char, not a number).

addenda

Even by taking your [final] example (which is not correct C++ because main has a bad signature, and GCC warns about that) I am getting two A outputs (and this using either GCC 4.6.3, or GC 4.7.2, or GCC 4.8.0). Also, your example lacks a std::endl and a final putchar('\n'); return 0; ….

Take the habit to always pass -Wall to g++ or gcc (also passing -g while you debug your program with gdb, later optimizing it with -O2 when there is no bugs), and also check with g++ -v that you are running the compiler you believe, and to get its version.

Accepted Answer