Convert string to char for ascii - c++

Question

I want to ask for word from the user and then convert the word from string to char using 'strcpy'. Then I want to determine the sum of the ascii codes for all of the letters in the word.
However, I am having difficulties. I don't understand exactly how I can do that. This is what I have been able to do so far.
#include <iostream>
#include <time.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
string word;
cout << "Enter word: ";
getline(cin, word);
/*
char w[word];
strcpy(w,word.c_str());
int ('A');
cout<<char(65);
*/
return 0;
}
The commented part is where I have been trying to do the converting. I copied the code from a worksheet. Even if it did work, I don't know how, and what it all means.
Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

char w[word];
strcpy(w, word.c_str());
char w[word] is incorrect. The square brackets is for the size, which must be a constant integral expression. word is of type std::string, so this makes neither logical nor practical sense. Maybe you meant it as:
char w = word;
But that still won't work because word is a string, not a character. The correct code in this case is:
char* w = new char[word.size() + 1];
That is, you allocate the memory for w using a char*. Then you use word.size() + 1 to initialize heap-allocated memory amounting to those bytes. Don't forget for the obligatory delete[] when you're finished using w:
delete[] w;
However, note that using raw pointers and explicit new is not needed in this case. Your code can easily be cleaned up into the following:
#include <numeric>
int main ()
{
std::string word;
std::getline(std::cin, word);
int sum = std::accumulate(word.begin(), word.end(), 0); /*
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ */
std::cout << "The sum is: " << sum << std::endl;
}

Answer 2

You don't need to use strcpy() (or use a char * at all, for that matter), but this'll do your counting using a char pointer:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
int main() {
std::string word;
std::cout << "Enter word: ";
std::cin >> word;
const char * cword = word.c_str();
int ascii_total = 0;
while ( *cword ) {
ascii_total += *cword++;
}
std::cout << "Sum of ASCII values of characters is: ";
std::cout << ascii_total << std::endl;
return 0;
}
Output:
paul#local:~/src/cpp/scratch$ ./asccount
Enter word: ABC
Sum of ASCII values of characters is: 198
paul#local:~/src/cpp/scratch$
If you really do want to use strcpy(), I'll leave it as an exercise to you to modify the above code.
Here's a better way to do it, just using std::string (and C++11, and obviously presuming your system uses the ASCII character set in the first place):
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
int main() {
std::string word;
std::cout << "Enter word: ";
std::cin >> word;
int ascii_total = 0;
for ( auto s : word ) {
ascii_total += s;
}
std::cout << "Sum of ASCII values of characters is: ";
std::cout << ascii_total << std::endl;
return 0;
}