HOWTO: Retrieve Language and Code Page id Using VerQueryValue

ID: Q160042

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual Basic Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 6.0
Microsoft Visual Basic Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions, 32-bit only, for Windows, version 4.0

SUMMARY

Using the VerQueryValue API, the language identifier and the character set identifier can be retrieved from the version-information resource within a file. You can concatenate these two identifiers to form a hexadecimal string and pass the string to another VerQueryValue call to retrieve the following version information: CompanyName, FileDescription, FileVersion, InternalName, LegalCopyright, OriginalFileName, ProductName, and ProductVersion.

This article presents a Visual Basic 4.0 32-bit sample application that retrieves the language identifier, the character set identifier, and the information mentioned above for the Windows system file, gdi32.dll.

This article also supplements the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article that extracts a VS_FIXEDFILEINFO structure from a file's version- information resource:

Q139491 How To Use Functions in VERSION.DLL - A 32-bit Sample App

MORE INFORMATION

This section shows you how to create a sample project that displays file information for the system file gdi32.dll in a list box by using the VerQueryValue function. The section assumes you are familiar with using Visual Basic to access the Windows API functions:

To Create The Sample Project

Start a new Standard EXE project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.

Add a command button and a listbox control to the Form1 form:

Copy the following code to the Code window of the Form1 form:


      Option Explicit
      Private Declare Function GetFileVersionInfo Lib "Version.dll" _
         Alias "GetFileVersionInfoA" _
         (ByVal lptstrFilename As String, _
         ByVal dwhandle As Long, _
         ByVal dwlen As Long, _
         lpData As Any) As Long

      Private Declare Function GetFileVersionInfoSize Lib "Version.dll" _
         Alias "GetFileVersionInfoSizeA" _
         (ByVal lptstrFilename As String, _
         lpdwHandle As Long) As Long

      Private Declare Function VerQueryValue Lib "Version.dll" _
         Alias "VerQueryValueA" _
         (pBlock As Any, _
         ByVal lpSubBlock As String, _
         lplpBuffer As Any, _
         puLen As Long) As Long

      Private Declare Function GetSystemDirectory Lib "kernel32" _
         Alias "GetSystemDirectoryA" _
         (ByVal Path As String, _
         ByVal cbBytes As Long) As Long

      Private Declare Sub MoveMemory Lib "kernel32" _
         Alias "RtlMoveMemory" _
         (dest As Any, _
         ByVal Source As Long, _
         ByVal Length As Long)

      Private Declare Function lstrcpy Lib "kernel32" _
         Alias "lstrcpyA" _
         (ByVal lpString1 As String, _
         ByVal lpString2 As Long) As Long

      Private Sub Command1_Click()
         Dim Buffer As String
         Dim rc As Long
         Dim FullFileName As String
         '*** We will check the FileDescription of the gdi32.dll****
         Buffer = String(255, 0)
         rc = GetSystemDirectory(Buffer, Len(Buffer))
         Buffer = LCase$(Mid$(Buffer, 1, InStr(Buffer, Chr(0)) - 1))
         FullFileName = Buffer & "\gdi32.dll"

         Dim lBufferLen As Long, lDummy As Long
         '*** Get size ****
         lBufferLen = GetFileVersionInfoSize(FullFileName, lDummy)
         If lBufferLen < 1 Then
            MsgBox "No Version Info available!"
            Exit Sub
         End If

         Dim sBuffer()  As Byte
         ReDim sBuffer(lBufferLen)
         rc = GetFileVersionInfo(FullFileName, _
                                 0&, _
                                 lBufferLen, _
                                 sBuffer(0))
         If rc = 0 Then
            MsgBox "GetFileVersionInfo failed."
            Exit Sub
         End If

         Dim lVerPointer As Long

         rc = VerQueryValue(sBuffer(0), _
                           "\VarFileInfo\Translation", _
                           lVerPointer, _
                           lBufferLen)

         If rc = 0 Then
            MsgBox "VerQueryValue failed."
            Exit Sub
         End If
         'lVerPointer is a pointer to four 4 bytes of Hex number,
         'first two bytes are language id, and last two bytes are code
         'page. However, Lang_Charset_String needs a  string of
         '4 hex digits, the first two characters correspond to the
         'language id and last two the last two character correspond
         'to the code page id.

         Dim bytebuffer(255) As Byte
         MoveMemory bytebuffer(0), lVerPointer, lBufferLen
         Dim Lang_Charset_String As String
         Dim HexNumber As Long

         HexNumber = bytebuffer(2) + bytebuffer(3) * &H100 + _
         bytebuffer(0) * &H10000 + bytebuffer(1) * &H1000000
         Lang_Charset_String = Hex(HexNumber)
         'now we change the order of the language id and code page
         'and convert it into a string representation.
         'For example, it may look like 040904E4
         'Or to pull it all apart:
         '04------        = SUBLANG_ENGLISH_USA
         '--09----        = LANG_ENGLISH
         ' ----04E4 = 1252 = Codepage for Windows:Multilingual

         Do While Len(Lang_Charset_String) < 8
            Lang_Charset_String = "0" & Lang_Charset_String
         Loop

         List1.Clear

         Dim strVersionInfo(7) As String
         strVersionInfo(0) = "CompanyName"
         strVersionInfo(1) = "FileDescription"
         strVersionInfo(2) = "FileVersion"
         strVersionInfo(3) = "InternalName"
         strVersionInfo(4) = "LegalCopyright"
         strVersionInfo(5) = "OriginalFileName"
         strVersionInfo(6) = "ProductName"
         strVersionInfo(7) = "ProductVersion"

         Dim i As Integer
         Dim strTemp As String
         For i = 0 To 7
            Buffer = String(255, 0)
            strTemp = "\StringFileInfo\" & Lang_Charset_String _
            & "\" & strVersionInfo(i)
            rc = VerQueryValue(sBuffer(0), strTemp, _
            lVerPointer, lBufferLen)

            If rc = 0 Then
               MsgBox "VerQueryValue failed at" & i
            Exit Sub
            End If

            lstrcpy Buffer, lVerPointer
            Buffer = Mid$(Buffer, 1, InStr(Buffer, Chr(0)) - 1)
            List1.AddItem strVersionInfo(i) & ": " & Buffer
         Next i
      End Sub

On the Run menu, select Start, or press the F5 key to start the program. Click the Command1 command button. The file information for gdi32.dll appears in the text box.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbAPI kbVBp kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpVB kbDSupport
Version : WINDOWS:4.0,6.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto