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StringCchCopyA function (strsafe.h)

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Copies one string to another. The size of the destination buffer is provided to the function to ensure that it does not write past the end of this buffer.

StringCchCopy is a replacement for the following functions:

Syntax

STRSAFEAPI StringCchCopyA(
  [out] STRSAFE_LPSTR  pszDest,
  [in]  size_t         cchDest,
  [in]  STRSAFE_LPCSTR pszSrc
);

Parameters

[out] pszDest

Type: LPTSTR

The destination buffer, which receives the copied string.

[in] cchDest

Type: size_t

The size of the destination buffer, in characters. This value must equal the length of pszSrc plus 1 to account for the copied source string and the terminating null character. The maximum number of characters allowed is STRSAFE_MAX_CCH.

[in] pszSrc

Type: LPCTSTR

The source string. This string must be null-terminated.

Return value

Type: HRESULT

This function can return one of the following values. It is strongly recommended that you use the SUCCEEDED and FAILED macros to test the return value of this function.

Return code Description
S_OK
 Source data was present, fully copied without truncation, and the resultant destination buffer is null-terminated.
STRSAFE_E_INVALID_PARAMETER
 The value in cchDest is either 0 or larger than STRSAFE_MAX_CCH.
STRSAFE_E_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER
 The copy operation failed due to insufficient buffer space. The destination buffer contains a truncated, null-terminated version of the intended result. In situations where truncation is acceptable, this may not necessarily be seen as a failure condition.
 

Note that this function returns an HRESULT value, unlike the functions that it replaces.

Remarks

Compared to the functions it replaces, StringCchCopy provides additional processing for proper buffer handling in your code. Poor buffer handling is implicated in many security issues that involve buffer overruns. StringCchCopy always null-terminates and never overflows a valid destination buffer, even if the contents of the source string change during the operation.

Behavior is undefined if the strings pointed to by pszSrc and pszDest overlap.

Neither pszSrc nor pszDest should be NULL. See StringCchCopyEx if you require the handling of null string pointer values.

StringCchCopy can be used in its generic form, or in its more specific forms. The data type of the string determines the form of this function that you should use.

String Data Type String Literal Function
char "string" StringCchCopyA
TCHAR TEXT("string") StringCchCopy
WCHAR L"string" StringCchCopyW
 

Note

The strsafe.h header defines StringCchCopy as an alias which automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.

Requirements

Requirement Value
Minimum supported client Windows XP with SP2 [desktop apps | UWP apps]
Minimum supported server Windows Server 2003 with SP1 [desktop apps | UWP apps]
Target Platform Windows
Header strsafe.h

See also

Reference

StringCbCopy

StringCchCopyEx