string to float problem

It works OK for me. Maybe the problem is how you are printing the double that atof() returns. What does the following program print when you run it?

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <string>
#include <cstdlib>

int main()
{
    std::string s("500.00");

    std::cout << std::fixed << std::setprecision(2)
              << std::atof(s.c_str()) << '\n';
}

ohh....I didnt include the setprecision and std::fixed. But if I include it, my code still doesnt print right. 500.00 as a string the float just becomes 50000.00

This is exactly what I did in my code.
It is in a function and I pass in string bal

float tt = atof(bal.c_str());
cout << tt;

Use sstream;

#include<sstream>
#include<string>
using namespace std;
int main(){
   stringstream converter;
   string str= "3.14";
   converter << str ;  //put in string 
   float PI = 0;
   converter >> PI; //put out float
 return 0;
}