Marshal.PtrToStringAnsi Method

Definition

Namespace:

System.Runtime.InteropServices

Assembly:

System.Runtime.InteropServices.dll

Allocates a managed String and copies all or part of an unmanaged ANSI (on Windows) or UTF-8 (on Unix) string into it.

Overloads

PtrToStringAnsi(IntPtr)	Copies all characters up to the first null character from an unmanaged ANSI or UTF-8 string to a managed String, and widens each character to UTF-16.
PtrToStringAnsi(IntPtr, Int32)	Allocates a managed String, copies a specified number of characters from an unmanaged ANSI or UTF-8 string into it, and widens each character to UTF-16.

PtrToStringAnsi(IntPtr)

Source:

Marshal.cs

Copies all characters up to the first null character from an unmanaged ANSI or UTF-8 string to a managed String, and widens each character to UTF-16.

public:
 static System::String ^ PtrToStringAnsi(IntPtr ptr);

public static string? PtrToStringAnsi (IntPtr ptr);

static member PtrToStringAnsi : nativeint -> string

Public Shared Function PtrToStringAnsi (ptr As IntPtr) As String

Parameters

ptr

IntPtr

nativeint

The address of the first character of the unmanaged string.

Returns

String

A managed string that holds a copy of the unmanaged string. If ptr is null, the method returns a null string.

Examples

The following example uses the PtrToStringAnsi method to create a managed string from an unmanaged char array.

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Runtime::InteropServices;

void main()
{
    // Create an unmanaged c string.
    const char * myString = "Hello managed world (from the unmanaged world)!";
    
    // Convert the c string to a managed String.
    String ^ myManagedString = Marshal::PtrToStringAnsi((IntPtr) (char *) myString);
    
    // Display the string to the console.
    Console::WriteLine(myManagedString);
}

Remarks

PtrToStringAnsi is useful for custom marshaling or when mixing managed and unmanaged code. Because this method creates a copy of the unmanaged string's contents, you must free the original string as appropriate. This method provides the opposite functionality of the Marshal.StringToCoTaskMemAnsi and Marshal.StringToHGlobalAnsi methods.

See also

• StringToCoTaskMemAnsi(String)
• StringToHGlobalAnsi(String)

PtrToStringAnsi(IntPtr, Int32)

Source:

Marshal.cs

Allocates a managed String, copies a specified number of characters from an unmanaged ANSI or UTF-8 string into it, and widens each character to UTF-16.

public:
 static System::String ^ PtrToStringAnsi(IntPtr ptr, int len);

public static string PtrToStringAnsi (IntPtr ptr, int len);

static member PtrToStringAnsi : nativeint * int -> string

Public Shared Function PtrToStringAnsi (ptr As IntPtr, len As Integer) As String

Parameters

ptr

IntPtr

nativeint

The address of the first character of the unmanaged string.

len

Int32

The byte count of the input string to copy.

Returns

String

A managed string that holds a copy of the native string if the value of the ptr parameter is not null; otherwise, this method returns null.

Exceptions

ArgumentException

len is less than zero.

Examples

The following example uses the PtrToStringAnsi method to create a managed string from an unmanagedchar array.

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Runtime::InteropServices;



void main()
{
    // Create an unmanaged c string.
    const char * myString = "Hello managed world (from the unmanaged world)!";

    // Convert the c string to a managed String.
    String ^ myManagedString = Marshal::PtrToStringAnsi((IntPtr) (char *) myString);

    // Display the string to the console.
    Console::WriteLine(myManagedString);
}

Remarks

PtrToStringAnsi is useful for custom marshaling or when mixing managed and unmanaged code. Because this method creates a copy of the unmanaged string's contents, you must free the original string as appropriate. This method provides the opposite functionality of the Marshal.StringToCoTaskMemAnsi and Marshal.StringToHGlobalAnsi methods.

See also

• StringToCoTaskMemAnsi(String)
• StringToHGlobalAnsi(String)