Error: cannot convert 'const WCHAR** to 'LPCWSTR ^

[SherifOmran]

Hello Guys,

I am trying to compile code taken from visual studio c++ with mingw but i keep on getting similar conversion problems

@
main.cpp:82: error: cannot convert 'const WCHAR** {aka const wchar_t**}' to 'LPCWSTR {aka const wchar_t*}' for argument '2' to 'int MessageBoxW(HWND, LPCWSTR, LPCWSTR, UINT)'
MessageBox (appWindow, message,"Note to Developer", MB_OK | MB_ICONASTERISK)^;
@

this is my code so far

@

#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include "resource.h"
#define UNICODE

#include "eWebLibrary.h"
#include "Validate.h"

#define STRINGLENGTH 64

enum Status {
Unknowon,
NoSerialNumber,
NotActivated,
NotCurrent,
Okay
};

HINSTANCE appInstance;
HWND appWindow;
HMENU appMenu;

char* windowClass = "eSellerateDemo";

char* publisherID = "PUB775527079";
char* activationID = "ACT757079729:XTHEXA-3GBR-A8U4R3-U2AB-VE1HPH-Y8PD6P-A97J-WUFG99-882A-E85NRB";

char webstoreID [STRINGLENGTH] = "STR9885216359";
char versionTitle [STRINGLENGTH] = "";
char serialNumber [STRINGLENGTH] = "";
char enteredValue [STRINGLENGTH] = "";

Status ownership = Unknowon;

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

static
void NoteToDeveloper (
char* message
) {
MessageBox (appWindow, message,"Note to Developer", MB_OK | MB_ICONASTERISK);
}

@

[SherifOmran]

Update: This was solved by adding the following to the pro file

DEFINES -= UNICODE

[SherifOmran]

now i get the following, any help is appreciated
@
main.cpp:-1: error: undefined reference to _imp__SelectObject@8' main.cpp:-1: error: undefined reference to_imp__CreateDIBitmap@24'
main.cpp:-1: error: undefined reference to _imp__CreateCompatibleDC@4' main.cpp:-1: error: undefined reference to_imp__BitBlt@36'
main.cpp:-1: error: undefined reference to `_imp__DeleteDC@4'

@

[andreyc]

Looks like you are using windows sdk.
Have you added a windows library that implements the undefined functions?
I think MSDN docs have more info about windows sdk.

[Rondog]

You might need to define 'UNCODE' before including the windows header. Some things might not be set right if unicode is not defined before the windows header is processed.

@
#define UNICODE

#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include "resource.h"
@

You might need to wrap text sent to the Win32 api with the _T() macro so that literals are treated properly by the compiler. This is defined in <tchar.h>. You can cast directly if you don't want to use this macro (i.e. L"Some text" ) which is basically what _T() does when unicode is defined.

@
#define UNICODE

#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <tchar.h>

#include "resource.h"
...
MessageBox (appWindow, message,_T("Note to Developer"), MB_OK | MB_ICONASTERISK);
@

[SherifOmran]

Code is
^
@
#include "mainwindow.h"
#include <QApplication>

#define UNICODE
static libraries version
requires:
eWebLibrary.h
eWebClient.lib
eWebClient.dll
validate.h
validateLibrary.lib

*************************************************/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <tchar.h>
#include "resource.h"

#include "eWebLibrary.h"
#include "Validate.h"

#define STRINGLENGTH 64

enum Status {
Unknowon,
NoSerialNumber,
NotActivated,
NotCurrent,
Okay
};

HINSTANCE appInstance;
HWND appWindow;
HMENU appMenu;

char* windowClass = "eSellerateDemo";

char* publisherID = "PUB775527079";
char* activationID = "ACT757079729:XTHEXA-3GBR-A8U4R3-U2AB-VE1HPH-Y8PD6P-A97J-WUFG99-882A-E85NRB";

char webstoreID [STRINGLENGTH] = "STR9885216359";
char versionTitle [STRINGLENGTH] = "";
char serialNumber [STRINGLENGTH] = "";
char enteredValue [STRINGLENGTH] = "";

Status ownership = Unknowon;

static
void NoteToDeveloper (
char* message
) {
MessageBox (appWindow, message,_T("Note to Developer"), MB_OK | MB_ICONASTERISK);
}
@

it says now
main.cpp:82: error: cannot convert 'char*' to 'LPCWSTR {aka const wchar_t*}' for argument '2' to 'int MessageBoxW(HWND, LPCWSTR, LPCWSTR, UINT)'
MessageBox (appWindow, message,_T("Note to Developer"), MB_OK | MB_ICONASTERISK);

I have many similar errors .. yes i am trying to compile a code that was depending on MSVS with MinGW ..
The project is using esellerate dll with QT
if you like to have the code, i can send it per email

[freeDNA]

try replacing all char with wchar_t and prefix every string with L:

for example:

char* publisherID = "PUB775527079";
wchar_t* publisherID = L"PUB775527079";

[SherifOmran]

for this part of the code

@
wchar_t message [256];
wchar_t* format = L"%s returned:\r\n0xX (%s)";
switch ( result ) {
case E_SUCCESS:
case E_SDK_INSTALLED_ENGINE:
case E_SDK_LATEST_ENGINE_ALREADY_INSTALLED:
case E_VALIDATEACTIVATION_MACHINE_MATCH:
case E_ENGINE_SKU_UPDATE_AVAILABLE:
sprintf(message, format, call, result, L"success");
break;
@

I get

@
main.cpp:100: error: cannot convert 'wchar_t*' to 'char*' for argument '1' to 'int sprintf(char*, const char*, ...)'
sprintf(message, format, call, result, L"success");
^
@

[SherifOmran]

When i disable the unicode i get the following with other undefined references

@
error: undefined reference to _imp__SelectObject@8' error: undefined reference to_imp__CreateDIBitmap@24'
@

[Rondog]

Try defining _UNICODE in addition to UNICODE. Scanning the header files for mingw I found some #defines that use both and others that only use the underscore version. I remember something about this back when I did use MSVC.

@
#define UNICODE
#define _UNICODE
@

I checked in some of my old software and I did have the two define statements in there. There was some reason for doing this (or I was told to do this and never questioned it).

[Rondog]

Yeah, that might do it

"#define UNICODE":http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7953025/why-both-unicode-and-unicode

[hskoglund]

Hi, the code is kind of last century, what I mean, _T() L( and #define or undefine UNICODE, you can survive without them, since you are using Qt :-)

For example: try switching from MessageBox to Qt's QMessageBox:
@
#include "QMessageBox" // <-- include this
static
void NoteToDeveloper (
char* message
) {
QMessageBox::information(QApplication::activeWindow(),"Note to Developer",message);
}
@

[SherifOmran]

@rondog: Using _unicode did not make a change in the err output ..
@hskoglund: I can not convert to QMessageBox because it is not only a messagebox problem but i ve other function as well such as @RegCreateKeyEx@

For the following code, i get now

@
static
void NoteToDeveloper (
char* message
) {
MessageBox (appWindow, message,"Note to Developer", MB_OK | MB_ICONASTERISK);
}

'MessageBoxW' : cannot convert parameter 2 from 'char *' to 'LPCWSTR'
Types pointed to are unrelated; conversion requires reinterpret_cast, C-style cast or function-style cast
@

[SherifOmran]

I uploaded the code in the following link, any body like to have a try compiling it, please share with me your result
I am using MinGW 4.8.3 (installed with QT5) and QT 4.8.2

"http://www.file-upload.net/download-10250968/esellerate.zip.html]esellerate.zip":[URL=http://www.file-upload.net/download-10250968/esellerate.zip.html]esellerate.zip[/URL]

[freeDNA]

Replace ALL non-UNICODE-aware functions with UNICODE-awares ones:
for example:

use swprintf() instead of sprintf()
"Your text to link here...":https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ybk95axf.aspx

Replace ALL char with wchar_t and prefix every string with L:

for example:

char* publisherID = “PUB775527079”;
wchar_t* publisherID = L“PUB775527079”;