diff --git a/db/jsobj.cpp b/db/jsobj.cpp
index 9014ef2af27..2d0c0e829dc 100644
--- a/db/jsobj.cpp
+++ b/db/jsobj.cpp
@@ -993,7 +993,7 @@ namespace mongo {
                 nested2dotted(b, e.embeddedObject(), newbase);
             }else{
                 string newbase = base + e.fieldName();
-                b.appendAs(e, newbase.c_str());
+                b.appendAs(e, newbase);
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/db/queryutil.cpp b/db/queryutil.cpp
index 75b021ad1b6..430587e75b6 100644
--- a/db/queryutil.cpp
+++ b/db/queryutil.cpp
@@ -888,7 +888,7 @@ namespace mongo {
                 case Array:{
                     BSONObjBuilder subb;
                     appendArray(subb , e.embeddedObject(), true);
-                    b.appendArray(b.numStr(i++).c_str(), subb.obj());
+                    b.appendArray(b.numStr(i++), subb.obj());
                     break;
                 }
                 case Object:{
@@ -902,7 +902,7 @@ namespace mongo {
                 }
                 default:
                     if (_include)
-                        b.appendAs(e, b.numStr(i++).c_str());
+                        b.appendAs(e, b.numStr(i++));
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/db/repl.cpp b/db/repl.cpp
index dc1c79892ad..73ecf9b95fa 100644
--- a/db/repl.cpp
+++ b/db/repl.cpp
@@ -579,7 +579,7 @@ namespace mongo {
         int n = 0;
         for ( set<string>::iterator i = addDbNextPass.begin(); i != addDbNextPass.end(); i++ ) {
             n++;
-            dbsNextPassBuilder.appendBool(i->c_str(), 1);
+            dbsNextPassBuilder.appendBool(*i, 1);
         }
         if ( n )
             b.append("dbsNextPass", dbsNextPassBuilder.done());
@@ -588,7 +588,7 @@ namespace mongo {
         n = 0;
         for ( set<string>::iterator i = incompleteCloneDbs.begin(); i != incompleteCloneDbs.end(); i++ ) {
             n++;
-            incompleteCloneDbsBuilder.appendBool(i->c_str(), 1);
+            incompleteCloneDbsBuilder.appendBool(*i, 1);
         }
         if ( n )
             b.append("incompleteCloneDbs", incompleteCloneDbsBuilder.done());
diff --git a/db/stats/counters.cpp b/db/stats/counters.cpp
index 0058d8adde7..a2d4cfb6f65 100644
--- a/db/stats/counters.cpp
+++ b/db/stats/counters.cpp
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ namespace mongo {
         {
             mongo::mutex::scoped_lock lk( _mutex );
             for ( map<string,long long>::iterator i=_counts.begin(); i!=_counts.end(); i++ ){
-                b.appendNumber( i->first.c_str() , i->second );
+                b.appendNumber( i->first , i->second );
             }
         }
         return b.obj();