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  4. std::string to const WCHAR*

std::string to const WCHAR*

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved C / C++ / MFC
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  • D David Crow

    Because string.c_str() returns a char* is why I indicated it would need to be a minimum. A typecast would still need to be applied (to make it wide). I don't use the STL, but a better solution would be to use wstring instead.


    "Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed" - 2 Timothy 2:15

    "Judge not by the eye but by the heart." - Native American Proverb

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    James R Twine
    wrote on last edited by
    #17

    The const char* returned by c_str() is not a wide string, while casting it to WCHAR* will allow the code to compile, it will not work correctly.    Peace!

    -=- James


    If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
    Avoid driving a vehicle taller than you and remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
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    • J James R Twine

      The const char* returned by c_str() is not a wide string, while casting it to WCHAR* will allow the code to compile, it will not work correctly.    Peace!

      -=- James


      If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
      Avoid driving a vehicle taller than you and remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
      DeleteFXPFiles & CheckFavorites (Please rate this post!)

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      Jorgen Sigvardsson
      wrote on last edited by
      #18

      James R. Twine wrote:

      while casting it to WCHAR* will allow the code to compile, it will not work correctly.

      From the context, I think he meant casting the entire string, and not the pointer. :)

      -- Mr. Bender's Wardrobe by ROBOTANY 500

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      • S Stick

        No. I'm given a std::string... here's the declaration: string m_ac; Now, if I attempt: m_graphics->DrawString(m_ac, -1, &font, PointF(8,8), NULL, &grnbrush); I get: Error 1 error C2664: 'Gdiplus::Status Gdiplus::Graphics::DrawString(const WCHAR *,INT,const Gdiplus::Font *,const Gdiplus::RectF &,const Gdiplus::StringFormat *,const Gdiplus::Brush *)' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'std::string' to 'const WCHAR *' so as you can clearly see, the m_ac is NOT already wide. I have tried to do something like this: WCHAR str[20+1] = L""; WideCharToMultiByte(CP_ACP, 0, m_ac.c_str(), -1, str, wcslen(str)+1, NULL, NULL); but this does not work either. Nor does just m_ac in parameter 3.

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        George L Jackson
        wrote on last edited by
        #19

        Have you tried "mbstowcs" or "mbstowcs_s" in stdlib.h. std::string mbstr = "The string!"; std::vector<wchar_t> wcstr(mbstr.size() + 1, L'\0'); size_t written = 0; mbstate_t state = {0}; const char* pmbstr = mbstr.c_str(); errno_t result = mbsrtowcs_s(&written, &wcstr[0], wcstr.size(), &pmbstr, mbstr.size(), &state); std::wcout << &wcstr[0] << std::endl; -- modified at 20:19 Thursday 28th September, 2006

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        • J Jorgen Sigvardsson

          James R. Twine wrote:

          while casting it to WCHAR* will allow the code to compile, it will not work correctly.

          From the context, I think he meant casting the entire string, and not the pointer. :)

          -- Mr. Bender's Wardrobe by ROBOTANY 500

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          James R Twine
          wrote on last edited by
          #20

          You mean to create a temporary, as in wstring( sTheString.c_str() )?  I do not think that will work, either...  Unless I am missing the intent of your smiley, that is.    Peace!

          -=- James


          If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
          Avoid driving a vehicle taller than you and remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
          DeleteFXPFiles & CheckFavorites (Please rate this post!)

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          • J James R Twine

            You mean to create a temporary, as in wstring( sTheString.c_str() )?  I do not think that will work, either...  Unless I am missing the intent of your smiley, that is.    Peace!

            -=- James


            If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
            Avoid driving a vehicle taller than you and remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
            DeleteFXPFiles & CheckFavorites (Please rate this post!)

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            Jorgen Sigvardsson
            wrote on last edited by
            #21

            Naw, more likely using CA2CW or something along those lines. My bet's on that David's a bit too experienced to fall for the (wchar_t*)str.c_str() and similar newbie mistakes. :)

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            • S Stick

              Don't think I can use ATL and not sure how I would do that anyway yet. I'm programming a win32 dll.

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              Jorgen Sigvardsson
              wrote on last edited by
              #22

              If you are using a fairly new version of MFC (7, 8), you can use the conversion classes such as CA2W without any hassles. Just include atlconv.h in stdafx.h, and you're set.

              -- Not a substitute for human interaction

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              • S Stick

                No. I'm given a std::string... here's the declaration: string m_ac; Now, if I attempt: m_graphics->DrawString(m_ac, -1, &font, PointF(8,8), NULL, &grnbrush); I get: Error 1 error C2664: 'Gdiplus::Status Gdiplus::Graphics::DrawString(const WCHAR *,INT,const Gdiplus::Font *,const Gdiplus::RectF &,const Gdiplus::StringFormat *,const Gdiplus::Brush *)' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'std::string' to 'const WCHAR *' so as you can clearly see, the m_ac is NOT already wide. I have tried to do something like this: WCHAR str[20+1] = L""; WideCharToMultiByte(CP_ACP, 0, m_ac.c_str(), -1, str, wcslen(str)+1, NULL, NULL); but this does not work either. Nor does just m_ac in parameter 3.

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                Jorgen Sigvardsson
                wrote on last edited by
                #23

                Stick^ wrote:

                WideCharToMultiByte(CP_ACP, 0, m_ac.c_str(), -1, str, wcslen(str)+1, NULL, NULL);

                Please use MultiByteToWideChar() instead. You are converting from char to wchar_t, right?

                wchar_t buf[20+1] = { 0 };
                MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, MB_PRECOMPOSED, m_ac.c_str(), m_ac.size(), buf, 20);

                should do the trick.

                -- From the Makers of Futurama

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                • J James R Twine

                  The const char* returned by c_str() is not a wide string, while casting it to WCHAR* will allow the code to compile, it will not work correctly.    Peace!

                  -=- James


                  If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
                  Avoid driving a vehicle taller than you and remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
                  DeleteFXPFiles & CheckFavorites (Please rate this post!)

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                  David Crow
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #24

                  James R. Twine wrote:

                  The const char* returned by c_str() is not a wide string,...

                  So what exactly does std::wstring::c_str() return?


                  "Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed" - 2 Timothy 2:15

                  "Judge not by the eye but by the heart." - Native American Proverb

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                  • D David Crow

                    James R. Twine wrote:

                    The const char* returned by c_str() is not a wide string,...

                    So what exactly does std::wstring::c_str() return?


                    "Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed" - 2 Timothy 2:15

                    "Judge not by the eye but by the heart." - Native American Proverb

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                    James R Twine
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #25

                    std::**w**string::c_str() returns a const WCHAR* (const wchar_t*), but not std::string:c_str(), which is what the OP was asking about.    I think that we (I?) are just getting confused about what "width" of string object is in use here.  The OP is dealing with having a std::string (ANSI) object and needs to get a (presumably valid) const WCHAR* (Unicode) out of it.    Since they cannot simply change the strings from std::string to std::wstring, they are stuck with ANSI string objects, and no amount of casting is going to create a valid wide string from the return of std::string:c_str().   They need to call a conversion function (either directly or indirectly) in order to translate the string correctly.    Peace!

                    -=- James


                    If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
                    Avoid driving a vehicle taller than you and remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
                    DeleteFXPFiles & CheckFavorites (Please rate this post!)

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                    • J James R Twine

                      std::**w**string::c_str() returns a const WCHAR* (const wchar_t*), but not std::string:c_str(), which is what the OP was asking about.    I think that we (I?) are just getting confused about what "width" of string object is in use here.  The OP is dealing with having a std::string (ANSI) object and needs to get a (presumably valid) const WCHAR* (Unicode) out of it.    Since they cannot simply change the strings from std::string to std::wstring, they are stuck with ANSI string objects, and no amount of casting is going to create a valid wide string from the return of std::string:c_str().   They need to call a conversion function (either directly or indirectly) in order to translate the string correctly.    Peace!

                      -=- James


                      If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
                      Avoid driving a vehicle taller than you and remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
                      DeleteFXPFiles & CheckFavorites (Please rate this post!)

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                      David Crow
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #26

                      James R. Twine wrote:

                      std::wstring::c_str() returns a const WCHAR* (const wchar_t*)...

                      Which is why I suggested it as a better solution here.

                      James R. Twine wrote:

                      ...no amount of casting is going to create a valid wide string from the return of std::string:c_str().

                      Agreed. :-O Blunder on my part.


                      "Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed" - 2 Timothy 2:15

                      "Judge not by the eye but by the heart." - Native American Proverb

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                      • S Stick

                        No. I'm given a std::string... here's the declaration: string m_ac; Now, if I attempt: m_graphics->DrawString(m_ac, -1, &font, PointF(8,8), NULL, &grnbrush); I get: Error 1 error C2664: 'Gdiplus::Status Gdiplus::Graphics::DrawString(const WCHAR *,INT,const Gdiplus::Font *,const Gdiplus::RectF &,const Gdiplus::StringFormat *,const Gdiplus::Brush *)' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'std::string' to 'const WCHAR *' so as you can clearly see, the m_ac is NOT already wide. I have tried to do something like this: WCHAR str[20+1] = L""; WideCharToMultiByte(CP_ACP, 0, m_ac.c_str(), -1, str, wcslen(str)+1, NULL, NULL); but this does not work either. Nor does just m_ac in parameter 3.

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                        Zac Howland
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #27

                        You are compiling with UNICODE defined, so DrawString is mapped to DrawStringW (which takes wide characters). Since you have a string (which are ANSI characters), you need to convert that string to a wstring (or simply to an array of wchar_t's). You'll need to muse MultiByteToWideChar for that (not WideCharToMultiByte).

                        If you decide to become a software engineer, you are signing up to have a 1/2" piece of silicon tell you exactly how stupid you really are for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week Zac

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                        • S Stick

                          No. I'm given a std::string... here's the declaration: string m_ac; Now, if I attempt: m_graphics->DrawString(m_ac, -1, &font, PointF(8,8), NULL, &grnbrush); I get: Error 1 error C2664: 'Gdiplus::Status Gdiplus::Graphics::DrawString(const WCHAR *,INT,const Gdiplus::Font *,const Gdiplus::RectF &,const Gdiplus::StringFormat *,const Gdiplus::Brush *)' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'std::string' to 'const WCHAR *' so as you can clearly see, the m_ac is NOT already wide. I have tried to do something like this: WCHAR str[20+1] = L""; WideCharToMultiByte(CP_ACP, 0, m_ac.c_str(), -1, str, wcslen(str)+1, NULL, NULL); but this does not work either. Nor does just m_ac in parameter 3.

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                          Stick
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #28

                          Thanks all for your help. I'm such an idiot, using the wrong function! I'll try all these good suggestions and do some more reading and see if I can't figure out more.

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                          • J Jorgen Sigvardsson

                            Stick^ wrote:

                            WideCharToMultiByte(CP_ACP, 0, m_ac.c_str(), -1, str, wcslen(str)+1, NULL, NULL);

                            Please use MultiByteToWideChar() instead. You are converting from char to wchar_t, right?

                            wchar_t buf[20+1] = { 0 };
                            MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, MB_PRECOMPOSED, m_ac.c_str(), m_ac.size(), buf, 20);

                            should do the trick.

                            -- From the Makers of Futurama

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                            Stick
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #29

                            Thanks. Would help if I followed everyone's directions!

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                            • Z Zac Howland

                              You are compiling with UNICODE defined, so DrawString is mapped to DrawStringW (which takes wide characters). Since you have a string (which are ANSI characters), you need to convert that string to a wstring (or simply to an array of wchar_t's). You'll need to muse MultiByteToWideChar for that (not WideCharToMultiByte).

                              If you decide to become a software engineer, you are signing up to have a 1/2" piece of silicon tell you exactly how stupid you really are for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week Zac

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                              James R Twine
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #30

                              Actually, the OP is using the GDI+ classes, and they tend to always accept wide strings, and not have A or W versions of functions that are aliased-to depending on the build.  For example, GDI+'s three versions of the Graphics::DrawString(...) function all take a const WCHAR* as the string type.    Peace!

                              -=- James


                              If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
                              Avoid driving a vehicle taller than you and remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
                              DeleteFXPFiles & CheckFavorites (Please rate this post!)

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