how to cast a char *mystring to a structure pointer ??

hey guys, how do you Cast a char *mystring to a structure pointer, namely "hostent" ??

looking at

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de.../hostent_2.asp ,

it says

"On successful completion, the buffer specified to the original function call contains a hostent structure. To access the elements of this structure, the original buffer address should be cast to a hostent structure pointer and accessed as appropriate."

like this??

Code:

char *hostEntry2 ;
hostent *abc= (HOSTENT)*hostEntry2;

nope it doesnt work
i ultimately want to use WSAAsyncGetHostByName to get the IP address of a computer. ( i use WSA version because the GetHostByName version blocks)

any help?

You have to be carefull when posting MSDN links because the address bar rarely contains the URL of what you're looking at.
I think you meant to post the URL for WSAAsyncGetHostByName()

From MDSN, WSAAsyncGetHostByName() parameters:

buf

[out] Pointer to the data area to receive the hostent data. The data area must be larger than the size of a hostent structure because the specified data area is used by Windows Sockets to contain a hostent structure and all of the data referenced by members of the hostent structure. A buffer of MAXGETHOSTSTRUCT bytes is recommended.

Code:

char hostentBuff[MAXGETHOSTSTRUCT];
...
hostent *abc = (hostent*)hostentBuff;

gg