Jochen Kalmbach's WebLog

Convert from System::String* to TCHAR*/CString

The conversion from System::String* to TCHAR*/CString is not directly supported. You can either convert to Unicode or Ansi (What is an ANSI string?).

To support TCHAR you have to do:

  //#include <vcclr.h>

  System::String *mstr = S"Hello world";
  TCHAR *ustr;
  #ifdef _UNICODE
  ustr = new TCHAR[mstr->get_Length()+1];
  const __wchar_t __pin * umstring = PtrToStringChars(mstr);
  #else
  const char* umstring = (const char*)Marshal::StringToHGlobalAnsi(mstr).ToPointer();
  ustr = new TCHAR[strlen(umstring)+1];
  #endif
  _tcscpy(ustr, umstring);
  #ifndef _UNICODE
  Marshal::FreeHGlobal(IntPtr((void*)umstring));
  #endif

  // do something with the unmanaged string

  delete [] ustr;

To support CString:

  System::String *mstr = S"Hello world";
  CString dest(mstr);
  // do something with the unmanaged string

Links: HOW TO: Convert from System::String* to Char* in Visual C++ .NET