How to convert NSString to C string?

Question

I know that this question is a possible duplicate, but even after looking at some Google tutorials and questions even on this forum none of them gives me a decent answer about t

Answer 1

A c string is returned as a pointer, not as an array of characters. To use it, you can change your variable to a pointer.

const char *command = [theString cStringUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

Since you want the UTF8 encoding, you can use the UTF8String convenience method.

const char *command = [theString UTF8String];

If you need the data to be stored in a character array, you can use the getCString:maxLength:encoding: method, passing the array as the buffer. This will allow you to store the string directly to the buffer, and will tell you if the buffer is too small.

char command[512];
if(![theString getCString:command maxLength:sizeof(command)/sizeof(*command) encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]) {
    NSLog(@"Command buffer too small");
}

Answer 2

try const char *command = [str UTF8String];