The null character '\0' (also null terminator), abbreviated NUL, is a control character with the value zero. Its the same in C and objective C

The character has much more significance in C and it serves as a reserved character used to signify the end of a string,often called a null-terminated string

The length of a C string (an array containing the characters and terminated with a '\0' character) is found by searching for the (first) NUL byte.

C++ std::strings are "counted" strings - i.e., their length is stored as an integer, and they can contain any character. When you replace the third character with a \0 nothing special happens - it's printed as if it was any other character (in particular, your console simply ignores it).

In the last line, instead, you are printing a C string, whose end is determined by the first \0 that is found. In such a case, cout goes on printing characters until it finds a \0, which, in your case, is after the third h.