C++ - Convert a wString to char *

I am trying to write a C++ library (dll) that will be called by the WebI reporting tool.  

The parameters passed from WebI are of type wString.

I need to pass these to another function that takes char * as the parameters.

How do I convert a wString to a char *?

mlmcc
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mlmccAsked:
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evilrixSenior Software Engineer (Avast)Commented:
There are two issues. Firstly, wString (not a standard type, so most likely a typedef or custom class)  is almost certainly a wide char type string (based on wchar_t). This will need to be narrowed to a char. Your second problem is one of encoding. What is the encoding format of the original string? Uft16? What encoding format does your function expect? Utf8? ANSI? There isn't enough info in the question to provide a real answer.
jkrCommented:
Assuming that you are on windows (since you mentioned 'DLL') and taking in mind what evilrix wrote about character sets, 'WideCharToMultiByte()' (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd374130%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) should be the most flexible way to approach that, since its parameters allow to control that. Scroll down for an example or check the section 'String Handling' in http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/633/Introduction-to-COM-What-It-Is-and-How-to-Use-It
mlmccAuthor Commented:
We tried the 'WideCharToMultiByte but couldn't make it work.

This does seem to work

std::wstring valPar0(param0);
const wchar_t *str = valPar0.c_str();
size_t size = wcslen(str)*2 + 2;
char * StartPoint= new char[size];
size_t c_size;
wcstombs_s(&c_size, StartPoint, size, str, size);

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jkrCommented:
That's a bit odd, since 'wcstombs_s()' is a wrapper around 'WideCharToMultiByte()' providing the most common parameters. Or, as in the Codeproject article, using

// Assuming we already have a Unicode string wszSomeString...
char szANSIString [MAX_PATH];

    WideCharToMultiByte ( CP_ACP,                // ANSI code page
                          WC_COMPOSITECHECK,     // Check for accented characters
                          wszSomeString,         // Source Unicode string
                          -1,                    // -1 means string is zero-terminated
                          szANSIString,          // Destination char string
                          sizeof(szANSIString),  // Size of buffer
                          NULL,                  // No default character
                          NULL );                // Don't care about this flag

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is equivalent to 

wcstombs ( szANSIString, wszSomeString, sizeof(szANSIString) );

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mlmccAuthor Commented:
I probably just had it coded wrong.  

mlmcc
jkrCommented:
Maybe... I'd just consider using the 1st way if you would encounter different encodings in the future. Maybe you'd just roll your own conversion layer that then can host either 'wcstombs*()' or 'WideCharToMultiByte()', depending on your future requirement. Just Something like 'MyProjectUtils::ConvertoANSI()'.
mlmccAuthor Commented:
Hopefully this is a one time thing for a special requirement.  I am a report writer who happens to be able to write code.  The last serious programming I did was in 2001 in VB6.

mlmcc
sarabandeCommented:
a little remark apart from this question:

if using visual c++ compiler for the dll you may consider to passing std::wstring to the dll and handle the strings in the dll. most report libraries for windows can handle wide strings (utf16/ms unicode) same as (or even better than) ansi strings. also if you want to return strings from dll, you could avoid a reverse conversion (with possible issues, for example if utf-8 characters are involved).

Sara
mlmccAuthor Commented:
I thought I had closed this.

Sorry for the delay

mlmcc
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