operator LPCTSTR ( ) const;
Return Value
A character pointer to the string’s data.
Remarks
This useful casting operator provides an efficient method to access the null-terminated C string contained in a CString object. No characters are copied; only a pointer is returned. Be careful with this operator. If you change a CString object after you have obtained the character pointer, you may cause a reallocation of memory that invalidates the pointer.
Example
The following example demonstrates the use of CString::operator LPCSTR.
// If the prototype of a function is known to the compiler,
// the LPCTSTR cast operator may be invoked implicitly
CString strSports(_T("Hockey is Best!"));
TCHAR sz[1024];
lstrcpy(sz, strSports);
// If the prototype isn't known, or is a va_arg prototype,
// you must invoke the cast operator explicitly. For example,
// the va_arg part of a call to sprintf() needs the cast:
sprintf(sz, "I think that %s!\n", (LPCTSTR) strSports);
// while the format parameter is known to be an LPCTSTR and
// therefore doesn't need the cast:
sprintf(sz, strSports);
// Note that some situations are ambiguous. This line will
// put the address of the strSports object to stdout:
cout << strSports;
// while this line will put the content of the string out:
cout << (LPCTSTR) strSports;