'System::String ^' to 'LPCWSTR'

Question

I want to convert System::String ^ to LPCWSTR.

for

FindFirstFile(LPCWSTR,WIN32_FIND_DATA); 

Please help.

Answer 1

You need to use P/Invoke. Check this link: http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/kernel32/FindFirstFile.html

Simply add the DllImport native function signature:

 [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto)]
 static extern IntPtr FindFirstFile
     (string lpFileName, out WIN32_FIND_DATA lpFindFileData);

and CLR will do managed to native type marshaling automatically.

[Edit] I just realized you're using C++/CLI. In that case, you can also use implicit P/Invoke, which is a feature which only C++ supports (opposed to C# and VB.NET). This articles shows several examples:

How to: Convert Between Various String Types in C++/CLI