Convert CString to const char*

Question

How do I convert from CString to const char* in my Unicode MFC application?

Answer 1

To convert a TCHAR CString to ASCII, use the CT2A macro - this will also allow you to convert the string to UTF8 (or any other Windows code page):

// Convert using the local code page CString str(_T("Hello, world!")); CT2A ascii(str); TRACE(_T("ASCII: %S\n"), ascii.m_psz);  // Convert to UTF8 CString str(_T("Some Unicode goodness")); CT2A ascii(str, CP_UTF8); TRACE(_T("UTF8: %S\n"), ascii.m_psz);  // Convert to Thai code page CString str(_T("Some Thai text")); CT2A ascii(str, 874); TRACE(_T("Thai: %S\n"), ascii.m_psz); 

There is also a macro to convert from ASCII -> Unicode (CA2T) and you can use these in ATL/WTL apps as long as you have VS2003 or greater.

See the MSDN for more info.

Answer 2

If your CString is Unicode, you'll need to do a conversion to multi-byte characters. Fortunately there is a version of CString which will do this automatically.

CString unicodestr = _T("Testing"); CStringA charstr(unicodestr); DoMyStuff((const char *) charstr);