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CharSet Enumeration

.NET Framework (current version)
 

Dictates which character set marshaled strings should use.

Namespace:   System.Runtime.InteropServices
Assembly:  mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

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[SerializableAttribute]
[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public enum class CharSet

Member nameDescription
Ansi

Marshal strings as multiple-byte character strings.

Auto

Automatically marshal strings appropriately for the target operating system. The default is Unicode on Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and the Windows Server 2003 family; the default is Ansi on Windows 98 and Windows Me. Although the common language runtime default is Auto, languages may override this default. For example, by default C# marks all methods and types as Ansi.

None

This value is obsolete and has the same behavior as CharSet::Ansi.

Unicode

Marshal strings as Unicode 2-byte characters.

Because there are several unmanaged string types and only one managed string type, you must use a character set to specify how managed strings should be marshaled to unmanaged code. This enumeration, which provides character set options, is used by DllImportAttribute and StructLayoutAttribute. For a detailed description of the string marshaling and name matching behavior associated with this enumeration, see Specifying a Character Set.

The following code example shows how to specify a CharSet enumeration value when applying the StructLayoutAttribute to a managed definition.

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[StructLayout(LayoutKind::Sequential, CharSet=CharSet::Ansi)]
public ref struct MyPerson
{
public:
    String^ first;
    String^ last;
};

Universal Windows Platform
Available since 8
.NET Framework
Available since 1.1
Portable Class Library
Supported in: portable .NET platforms
Silverlight
Available since 2.0
Windows Phone Silverlight
Available since 7.0
Windows Phone
Available since 8.1
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