Search code examples
c++charconstantstchar

How to convert TCHAR to const char?


The most similar thing I found is conversion to char. I'm trying to convert TCHAR "path" to const char. Btw I use character set: "Not Set".

#include <stdlib.h>
// ... your defines
#define MAX_LEN 100

TCHAR *systemDrive = getenv("systemDrive");
TCHAR path[_MAX_PATH];
_tcscpy(path, systemDrive);

TCHAR c_wPath[MAX_LEN] = _T("Hello world!");//this is original
//TCHAR c_wPath[MAX_LEN] = path; "path" shows error
char c_szPath[MAX_LEN];

wcstombs(c_szPath, c_wPath, wcslen(c_wPath) + 1);

Solution

  • TCHAR is alias for different types depending of platform, defined macros, etc. so, TCHAR can be alias for char(1 byte) or WCHAR(2 bytes). further, WCHAR can be alias for wchar_t or unsigned short. But, you made conversion using wcstombs which has signature like size_t wcstombs(char *, const wchar_t *, size_t), so you have

    char* c_szPath 
    

    pointing to converted array of char, now, if you need const char*, it is probably enough to write simply const char * myPath = c_szPath, it is legal, and use myPath. But maybe, you even don't need this, because char* can bind on argument of type const char * if you need to pass it to function as argument. When you say,

    "path" shows error

    that is because array type is not assignable. I really hope this helps.