remove_copy usage with strings

My string is !!(!()). I want to remove double exclamation from the string.

This works but it removes all exclamations

remove_copy(str.begin(), str.end(),ostream_iterator<char>(cout), '!');//gives (())

This does not work

remove_copy(str.begin(), str.end(),ostream_iterator<string>(cout), "!!");

Using the above line throws this error

/usr/include/c++/5/bits/predefined_ops.h:194:17: error: ISO C++ forbids comparison between pointer and integer [-fpermissive] { return *__it == _M_value; }

Reading the docs of remove_copy

OutputIterator remove_copy (InputIterator first, InputIterator last,
                          OutputIterator result, const T& val);

The function uses operator== to compare the individual elements to val.

So it uses every character of string and compares it with val. So second case would not work.

I ended up doing it this way

str.erase(str.find("!!"),2);

Also make sure that the string has "!!" otherwise program crashes

if(str.find("!!") != string::npos)
    str.erase(str.find("!!"),2);