Convert char* to WORD*

I need to convert a char* to a unsigned int* for input into an RC5 encryption algorhythm method. The program ends up crashing when trying to use the converted type. How can this conversion be made properly?

Code:

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#define WORD unsigned int;
.
.
char* pt = "plaintext";
WORD* plaintext = (WORD*) pt;
//do encryption

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Well you certainly can't just cast two data types that are of different sizes and expect something to magically make sense of it. What I suspect you want to do is convert each character in your char array to it's corresponding integer ASCII code value, and put all of these values in an unsigned array.

You need to copy the entire char array into a WORD array of the same length. Converting a single char to an unsigned int is not a problem since a char fits well within an int.

OK I got it, appreciate your help.

Crash is likely due to alignment because a char can be located at any byte boundary but an int has to be at a word boundary.