Re: If NULL Ends a String or Char[], How to Send NULL to a File?

You already have a bunch of correct replies, but here is my 2 cents.

Writing c++, I prefer using strings to char arrays for any type of data
like 
that.

Say you're making a call that requires a buffer of a maximum size.  I
prefer

string buffer;
buffer.resize(MAX_BUFFER_SIZE);

WindowsAPICall(inputVar, (char *)buffer.data(), buffer.length() );

// use buffer

This is what I did when adding multistring sup****t to our Windows registry

library and it removed concerns about resource deallocation when an 
exception occurred.  (Note that I'm not saying that memory leaks will 
necessarily occur with any other solution)

Two problems with my approach are
1. Any string handling functions that consider a null byte to be the end
of 
the string will fail (mentioned earlier in the thread)
2. Your IDE may not show the entire contents of the string

Criticism welcomed,
Ed

"Hal Vaughan" <hal@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:RA5Cj.7517$z13.4208@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>I have a series of codes that will include NULL bytes and other non-text
> data that I need to send to a device through a file.
>
> Since a NULL terminates a string, how do I send a string containing NULL
> bytes to a file (or device, depending on the OS)?
>
> Do I have to handle the string (or char[]) in a special way to make sure

> all
> the data is kept intact?
>
> Is there a better way to handle this?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Hal