Nik Thanks for the tip Actually, the only method that worked for me was method 2. Method 3 would not compile. The include altstr.h produced IServiceProvider error. Method 1 compiled OK, but I had to use a LPSTR cast to get it to compile. However, it produced a number (34") regardless of the value of the String* that I fed it. Perhaps there are ways to get methods 1 & 3 to work, but I don't know enough about .Net to figure out how. Cheers and best wishes in your PhD effort. John
