I have read several places that the difference between c_str() and data() (in STL and other implementations) is that c_str() is always null terminated while data() is not.
As far as I have seen in actual implementations, they either do the same or data() calls c_str().
What am I missing here? Which one is more correct to use in which scenarios?
Answer
The documentation is correct. Use c_str() if you want a null terminated string.
If the implementers happend to implement data() in terms of c_str() you don't have to worry, still use data() if you don't need the string to be null terminated, in some implementation it may turn out to perform better than c_str().
strings don't necessarily have to be composed of character data, they could be composed with elements of any type. In those cases data() is more meaningful. c_str() in my opinion is only really useful when the elements of your string are character based.
Extra: In C++11 onwards, both functions are required to be the same. i.e. data is now required to be null-terminated. According to cppreference: "The returned array is null-terminated, that is, data() and c_str() perform the same function."