LPCSTR to LPCWSTR

I'm trying to perform the type conversion as shown in the subject title. Below shows the working copy of my code relevant to this conversion so far:

Code:

---

        LPCSTR lpszOutput = "c:\\PDFTron_before.pdf";

        SHELLEXECUTEINFOW File;

        File.cbSize = sizeof(SHELLEXECUTEINFOW);
        File.hwnd = NULL;
        File.lpVerb = L"open";
        File.lpFile = lpszOutput;

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If I try using the green highlighted code, I'm getting the following error message:

Code:

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1>c:\pdftron_vprint\shellscript\shellscript.cpp(20) : error C2440: '=' : cannot convert from 'LPCSTR' to 'LPCWSTR'
1>        Types pointed to are unrelated; conversion requires reinterpret_cast, C-style cast or function-style cast

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If I try replacing the highlighted code with:

Code:

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int byteWritten = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP,
                                                                MB_PRECOMPOSED,
                                                                lpszOutput,
                                                                -1,
                                                                (LPWSTR) File.lpFile,
                                                                0);

---

I'm getting a runtime error saying that File was used without being initialized. Does it imply that I should be allocating memory to File.lpFile?

I think I have found a potential workaround for this. Below shows what I'm trying to do right now:

Code:

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wstring fn = wstring(lpszOutput);

---

However, I'm experiencing a problem with the conversion of LPCSTR to wstring. Any pointers on general methods on getting this conversion accomplished?

nvm on this question. I did some hacks to get around this problem.

Why not just declare lpszOutput as a LPWSTR?

Additionally, yes, you need allocate memory to File.lpFile, and that cast should not be needed. There is a way to call MultiByteToWideChar such that it will tell you how much memory to allocate. (Read MSDN docs)

Here is my own ascii to utf16 function:

Code:

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        Strings::CStringExW AnsiToUTF16(const Strings::CStringExA& strFrom)
        {
                Strings::CStringExW strTo;
                int nLen = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, strFrom.get(), -1, NULL, NULL);
                wchar_t* strBuffer = strTo.GetBuffer(nLen + 1);
                strBuffer[0] = 0;
                CHECK_ERROR( MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, strFrom.get(), -1, strBuffer, nLen) );
                strTo.ReleaseBuffer();
                return strTo;
        }

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Study the code well and all should be fine you'll see.

Code:

---

WCHAR lpszOutput[] = L"c:\\PDFTron_before.pdf";

        SHELLEXECUTEINFOW File;

        File.cbSize = sizeof(SHELLEXECUTEINFOW);
        File.hwnd = NULL;
        File.lpVerb = L"open";
        File.lpFile = lpszOutput;

---

Now it should work.

Declare your variables with the Unicode compatibility declarations (and macros).
Then you can flip between Ascii and Unicode without having to hack the code.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...61(VS.85).aspx

You can include the <tchar.h> header and use TCHAR szString [] = _T("I am a string"); or use the TEXT("") macro ...


Greetz
Greenhorn