BSTR to std::string (std::wstring) and vice versa

Question

While working with COM in C++ the strings are usually of BSTR data type. Someone can use BSTR wrapper like CComBSTR or MS\'s CSt

Answer 1

You could also do this

#include 

BSTR bs = SysAllocString("Hello");
std::wstring myString = _bstr_t(bs, false); // will take over ownership, so no need to free

or std::string if you prefer

EDIT: if your original string contains multiple embedded \0 this approach will not work.