Converting Unicodestring to Char[]

Question

I've got a form with a Listbox which contains lines of four words. When I click on one line, these words should be seen in four different textboxes. So far, I've got everything working, yet I have a problem with chars converting.

The string from the listbox is a UnicodeString but the strtok uses a char[]. The compiler tells me it "Cannot Convert UnicodeString to Char[]". This is the code I am using for this:

{
 int a;
 UnicodeString b;

 char * pch;
 int c;

 a=DatabaseList->ItemIndex;   //databaselist is the listbox
 b=DatabaseList->Items->Strings[a]; 

 char str[] = b; //This is the part that fails, telling its unicode and not char[].
 pch = strtok (str," ");      
 c=1;                          
 while (pch!=NULL)
    {
       if (c==1)
       {
          ServerAddress->Text=pch;
       } else if (c==2)
       {
          DatabaseName->Text=pch;
       } else if (c==3)
       {
          Username->Text=pch;
       } else if (c==4)
       {
          Password->Text=pch;
       }
       pch = strtok (NULL, " ");
       c=c+1;
    }
}

I know my code doesn't look nice, pretty bad actually. I'm just learning some programming in C++.

How can I convert this?

Answer 1

strtok actually modifies your char array, so you will need to construct an array of characters you are allowed to modify. Referencing directly into the UnicodeString string will not work.

// first convert to AnsiString instead of Unicode.
AnsiString ansiB(b);  

// allocate enough memory for your char array (and the null terminator)
char* str = new char[ansiB.Length()+1];  

// copy the contents of the AnsiString into your char array 
strcpy(str, ansiB.c_str());  

// the rest of your code goes here

// remember to delete your char array when done
delete[] str;