NSString getCString example ios

getCString: maxLength: encoding:

Converts the receiver’s content to a given encoding and stores them in a buffer.

- (BOOL)getCString:(char *)buffer maxLength:(NSUInteger)maxBufferCount encoding:(NSStringEncoding)encoding

Parameters

buffer

Upon return, contains the converted C-string plus the NULL termination byte. The buffer must include room formaxBufferCount bytes.

maxBufferCount

The maximum number of bytes in the string to return in buffer (including the NULL termination byte).

encoding

The encoding for the returned C string.

Return Value of [NSString getCString]

YES if the operation was successful, otherwise NO. Returns NO if conversion is not possible due to encoding errors or if buffer is too small.

Discussion of [NSString getCString]

Note that in the treatment of the maxBufferCount argument, this method differs from the deprecatedgetCString:maxLength: method which it replaces. (The buffer should include room for maxBufferCount bytes; this number should accommodate the expected size of the return value plus the NULL termination byte, which this method adds.)

You can use canBeConvertedToEncoding: to check whether a string can be losslessly converted to encoding. If it can’t, you can use dataUsingEncoding:allowLossyConversion: to get a C-string representation using encoding, allowing some loss of information (note that the data returned by dataUsingEncoding:allowLossyConversion: is not a strict C-string since it does not have a NULL terminator).

Example of [NSString getCString]

char command[512];
if(![theString getCString:command maxLength:sizeof(command)/sizeof(*command) encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]) {
    NSLog(@"Command buffer too small");
}

Example of [NSString getCString]

NSUInteger len = [originalFeed lengthOfBytesUsingEncoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding] + 1;
char entireFeed[len];
[originalFeed getCString:entireFeed maxLength:len encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

Example of [NSString getCString]

BOOL success = [myCocoaString getCString:myData.USERNAME maxLength:32 encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(@"Was %@ to store string contents in USERNAME!", success ? @"able" : @"not able");