Passing a string from C# to cpp with COM?

Yes. The standard COM string type is BSTR. It is a Unicode string encoded in UTF16, just like Windows' native string type No, a COM method isn't going to understand a UTF8 string, it will turn it into Chinese.

UTF8 is a good encoding for a text file, not for programs manipulating strings in memory. UTF8 requires anywhere between 1 and 4 bytes to encode a Unicode codepoint. Very incompatible with basic string manipulations like getting the size or indexing a character C and C++ programs tend to use 8-bit encodings, compatible with the "char" type.

That's an old practice, dating back from an era before Unicode was around. There's nothing attractive about it, there are many 8-bit encodings. The typical problem is that data entered as text can only be interpreted correctly if it is read by a program that uses the same 8-bit encoding.In other words, when the computers are less than 1000 miles apart.

Less in Europe.

Yes. The standard COM string type is BSTR. It is a Unicode string encoded in UTF16, just like Windows' native string type.No, a COM method isn't going to understand a UTF8 string, it will turn it into Chinese.

UTF8 is a good encoding for a text file, not for programs manipulating strings in memory. UTF8 requires anywhere between 1 and 4 bytes to encode a Unicode codepoint. Very incompatible with basic string manipulations like getting the size or indexing a character.

C and C++ programs tend to use 8-bit encodings, compatible with the "char" type. That's an old practice, dating back from an era before Unicode was around. There's nothing attractive about it, there are many 8-bit encodings.

The typical problem is that data entered as text can only be interpreted correctly if it is read by a program that uses the same 8-bit encoding. In other words, when the computers are less than 1000 miles apart. Less in Europe.

Sounds to me like you've got it backward. He's calling into a C# COM component from C++. – sblom Apr 24 '10 at 23:06 @sblom: yes, your answer mystified me.COM looks the same way on both ends.

Automation has always been Unicode enabled. – Hans Passant Apr 25 '10 at 8:00.

No. Yes. Put the attribute return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.

LPStr) before the method definition in C# if you'd like to return the string as an ANSI string instead of Unicode. Yeah--the author may have done that to maintain very fine-grained control on the encoding of the contents of the string by side-stepping the default marshalling behavior.

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