diff --git a/test/view.cpp b/test/view.cpp
index a3322cec..0f8cf2ec 100644
--- a/test/view.cpp
+++ b/test/view.cpp
@@ -9,10 +9,10 @@ main (int, char**)
     const std::string s = "this is a test string";
     const std::string t = "not the same string";
 
-    tap.expect_eq (s, util::view<std::string::const_iterator> (s.cbegin (), s.cend ()), "string-const_iterator inequality comparison");
-    tap.expect_eq (s, util::view<const char*> (&*s.cbegin (), &*s.cend ()), "string-pointer equality comparison");
-
-    tap.expect_neq (t, util::make_view (s), "string-view inequality");
+    tap.expect_eq (s, util::make_view(s), "string/view equality");
+    tap.expect_neq (s, util::make_view(t), "string/view inequality");
+    tap.expect_eq (s.data (), util::make_view (s), "c-str/view equality");
+    tap.expect_eq (s, util::view<const char*> (&*s.cbegin (), &*s.cend ()), "string/pointer-view equality");
 
     return tap.status ();
 }
diff --git a/view.hpp b/view.hpp
index 4bfb1fd7..78db55ee 100644
--- a/view.hpp
+++ b/view.hpp
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 
 #include <cstdlib>
 #include <ostream>
+#include <string>
 
 namespace util {
     template <typename T>
@@ -86,6 +87,27 @@ namespace util {
         return view<T> {first, last};
     }
 
+    // string conversions
+    view<const char*> make_view (const char *str);
+    view<char*> make_view (char *str);
+
+    template <typename CharT, typename TraitsT, typename AllocT>
+    view<const CharT*>
+    make_view (const std::basic_string<CharT,TraitsT,AllocT>&);
+
+    template <typename CharT, typename TraitsT, typename AllocT>
+    view<CharT*>
+    make_view (std::basic_string<CharT,TraitsT,AllocT>&);
+
+    template <typename CharT, typename TraitsT, typename AllocT>
+    view<const CharT*>
+    make_view (const std::basic_string<CharT,TraitsT,AllocT>&&) = delete;
+
+    template <typename CharT, typename TraitsT, typename AllocT>
+    view<CharT*>
+    make_view (std::basic_string<CharT,TraitsT,AllocT>&&) = delete;
+
+    // boolean operationrs
     template <typename T>
     bool operator!= (view<T>, view<T>);
 
diff --git a/view.ipp b/view.ipp
index a14691df..dc42b71b 100644
--- a/view.ipp
+++ b/view.ipp
@@ -213,3 +213,44 @@ util::make_cview (const T &t)
 {
     return util::view<decltype(std::cbegin (t))> { std::cbegin (t), std::cend (t) };
 }
+
+
+///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+inline
+util::view<const char*>
+util::make_view (const char *str)
+{
+    return { str, str + strlen (str) };
+}
+
+//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+inline
+util::view<char*>
+util::make_view (char *str)
+{
+    return { str, str + strlen (str) };
+}
+
+
+//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+template <typename CharT, typename TraitsT, typename AllocT>
+util::view<const CharT*>
+util::make_view (const std::basic_string<CharT,TraitsT,AllocT> &str)
+{
+    return {
+        std::data (str),
+        std::data (str) + std::size (str)
+    };
+}
+
+
+//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+template <typename CharT, typename TraitsT, typename AllocT>
+util::view<CharT*>
+util::make_view (std::basic_string<CharT,TraitsT,AllocT> &str)
+{
+    return {
+        std::data (str),
+        std::data (str) + std::size (str)
+    };
+}