std::string::erase is deleting all the characters following the iterator instead of only the iterator

Question

I am trying to erase a character from a string. I have tried the code below:

size_t it = s.find(char(i+97)); //dont mind the i, it is just the int in a for loop.
s.erase(it);

Here is a test case:
Input: "cccaabababaccbc"
Output: "ccc"
Any ideas on why this is happening?

Answer 1

When you pass in an index, to erase, it goes till the end of the string. Change it to s.erase(it,1). The second parameter indicates the number of characters to remove.

I suggest not naming the variable it, that name is typically used for iterator types.

If you pass an iterator to erase, then only that character is removed.

Heres the docs: https://www.cplusplus.com/reference/string/string/erase/