#include <iostream>    // basic file operations
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  char str[] = "myfile.txt";
  string mystring;
  ofstream myfile;

  mystring = "myfile.txt";

  myfile.open(mystring);  // gets an error for some reason (error below)
  //myfile.open(str);         // but this doesn't... and works as expected.

/*********   This is from mingw:  ******************/
  g++ -Wall -W -pedantic filex1.cpp -o filex1.exe
filex1.cpp: In function `int main()':
filex1.cpp:14: error: no matching function for call to `
   std::basic_ofstream<char, std::char_traits<char> >::open(std::string&)'
C:/cs1300/include/c++/3.3.1/fstream:691: error: candidates are: void
   std::basic_ofstream<_CharT, _Traits>::open(const char*, std::_Ios_Openmode)
   [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits<char>]

  myfile.open(mystring.c_str()); 

#include <iostream>    // basic file operations
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  char str[] = "myfile.txt";
  string mystring;
  ofstream myfile;

  mystring = "myfile.txt";

  myfile.open(mystring.data() ); // ah! I see 
  myfile.open(mystring);         // gets an error for some reason (error below)
  //myfile.open(str);            // but this doesn't... why?

  cout << str      <<endl;
  cout << mystring <<endl;

  myfile << "Writing this to a file 1 using mystring.data() to return a pointer \n\
to a type char representation of the string as explained \n\
    here: [url]http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/string/string/[/url] \n\
and here: http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/string/string/data.html";
  myfile.close();

  return 0;
}

  string mystring;
  mystring = "This is the initial string content";
  cout << mystring << endl;