These services are to assist an NP in providing the same behavior as other networks with respect to local device naming and validation (for example, in recognizing that "LPT1:" and "LPT1" are the same device).
A provider can use the NPSDeviceGetNumber function to both validate a local print or disk device string and to convert it to a number.
A provider can use the NPSDeviceGetString function to take a local print or disk device number and convert it to a string.
Note that calling NPSDeviceGetNumber followed by NPSDeviceGetString validates and normalizes a device name.