typedef struct _CHAR_INFO { /* chi */
union {
WCHAR UnicodeChar;
CHAR AsciiChar;
} Char;
WORD Attributes;
} CHAR_INFO, *PCHAR_INFO;
The CHAR_INFO structure specifies the Unicode or ASCII character and the foreground and background color attributes of a screen buffer character cell. This structure is used by console functions to read from and write to a console screen buffer.
Char
Specifies either the Unicode or ASCII character of a screen buffer character cell, depending on the mode of the function being used.
Attributes
Specifies the foreground (text) and background colors in which a screen buffer character cell is drawn.
The CHAR_INFO structure may be used in either wide-character (where text arguments must use Unicode) or ANSI (where text arguments must use characters from the Windows 3.x character set installed) versions of the ReadConsoleOutput, WriteConsoleOutput, ScrollConsoleScreenBuffer functions.