C++:
Removing quotes from a string

How to:

Here’s a straightforward way to kick those quotes to the curb in C++:

#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>

std::string remove_quotes(std::string input) {
    input.erase(std::remove(input.begin(), input.end(), '\"'), input.end());
    input.erase(std::remove(input.begin(), input.end(), '\''), input.end());
    return input;
}

int main() {
    std::string original = R"("Hello, 'World'!")";
    std::string no_quotes = remove_quotes(original);
    std::cout << no_quotes << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

Run this, and you’ll get:

Hello, World!

Voila! The quotes have vanished.

Deep Dive

Quotations have been a text nuisance since the dawn of computing. Back in the day, you’d see programmers laboriously loop through each character to filter out those quotes. Today, we’ve got std::remove in the Standard Template Library (STL) to do the heavy lifting.

Alternatives? Sure! You could use regular expressions with std::regex to target quotes, but that’s a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut - powerful, but can be overkill for simple tasks. For those favoring recent C++ flavors, you might dabble with std::string_view for non-modifying approaches.

Implementation wise, remember that std::remove doesn’t actually remove elements from the container; it shuffles non-removed elements forward and returns an iterator past the new end of the range. That’s why we need the erase method to chop off the unwanted tail.

See Also

• C++ std::remove reference: cppreference.com
• More on std::string manipulation: cplusplus.com