Convert BSTR to char*

c++ visual-c++ char bstr
barlyee picture barlyee · Sep 6, 2010 · Viewed 31k times · Source

Anyone know how to convert BSTR to char* ?

Update: I tried to do this, but don't know if it is right or wrong.

char *p= _com_util::ConvertBSTRToString(URL->bstrVal);
strcpy(testDest,p );

Answer

dirkgently picture dirkgently · Sep 6, 2010

Your code is okay. ConvertBSTRToString does just that. As for the strcpy, testDest needs to be large enough to hold the string pointed to by p. Note that since ConvertBSTRToString allocates a new string you will need to free it somewhere down the line. Once you are done make sure you do:

delete[] p;

A couple of caveats though (as you can see from BSTR documentation on MSDN):

  • On Microsoft Windows, consists of a string of Unicode characters (wide or double-byte characters).
  • May contain multiple embedded null characters.

So, your strcpy may not always work as expected.

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