关于find()函数及npos

npos类型： static const size_t npos = -1; 

find()类型声明：

string (1)	size_t find (const string& str, size_t pos = 0) const;
c-string (2)	size_t find (const char* s, size_t pos = 0) const;
buffer (3)	size_t find (const char* s, size_t pos, size_t n) const;
character (4)	size_t find (char c, size_t pos = 0) const;

用法示例：

#include <iostream> 
#include <string> 
using namespace std;

int main (){
	string str ("There are two needles in this haystack with needles.");
	string str2 ("needle");
	// different member versions of find in the same order as above:
	//1
	size_t found = str.find(str2);
	if (found!=string::npos)
	cout << "first 'needle' found at: " << found << '\n';

	//3
	found=str.find("needles are small",found+1,6);
	//从上次找到的位置的下一个位置开始查找 "needles are small"的前六个字符 
	if (found!=string::npos)
	cout << "second 'needle' found at: " << found << '\n';
	
	//2
	found=str.find("haystack");
	if (found!=string::npos)
	cout << "'haystack' also found at: " << found << '\n';
		
	//4
	found=str.find('.');
	if (found!=string::npos)
	cout << "Period found at: " << found << '\n';
	// let's replace the first needle:
	str.replace(str.find(str2),str2.length(),"preposition");
	//从str.find(str2)开始  str2.length()长度 的string串被替换为 "preposition"
	cout << str << '\n';
	return 0;
}

运行结果：

参考：

http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/string/string/find/