casting into a Python string from a char[] returned by a DLL

Question

I am attempting to cast a C style const char[] string pointer (returned from a DLL) into a Python compatible string type. but when Python27 executes:

import ctypes

charPtr = ctypes.cast( "HiThere", ctypes.c_char_p )
print( "charPtr = ", charPtr )

we get: charPtr = c_char_p('HiThere')

perhaps something is not to be evaluating properly. My questions are:

1. how should one cast this charPtr back into a Python compatible, print-able string?
2. is the cast operation just mentioned doing what it should be doing?

Answer 1

ctypes.cast() is used to convert one ctype instance to another ctype datatype. You don't need it To convert it to python string. Just use ".value" to get it in python string.

>>> s = "Hello, World"
>>> c_s = c_char_p(s)
>>> print c_s
c_char_p('Hello, World')
>>> print c_s.value
Hello, World

More info here