google can help on those issues: #include string(); string( const string& s ); string( size_type length, const char& ch ); string( const char* str ); string( const char* str, size_type length ); string( const string& str, size_type index, size_type length ); string( input_iterator start, input_iterator end ); ~string(); string doesn't take any char to initialize so, do this: string b = ""; b.append(0,a.at(0));