How can I get a value from a map?

std::map::operator[] is a non-const member function, and you have a const reference.

You either need to change the signature of function or do:

MAP::const_iterator pos = map.find("string");
if (pos == map.end()) {
    //handle the error
} else {
    std::string value = pos->second;
    ...
}

operator[] handles the error by adding a default-constructed value to the map and returning a reference to it. This is no use when all you have is a const reference, so you will need to do something different.

You could ignore the possibility and write string value = map.find("string")->second;, if your program logic somehow guarantees that "string" is already a key. The obvious problem is that if you’re wrong then you get undefined behavior.