[RESOLVED] msoftcon.h error

[dellthinker]

I'm trying to build this project from a lecture but ran into a problem. The code I wrote requires me to add msoftcon.cpp and msoftcon.h to the project and I received an error trying to build it.

'HANDLE CreateFileW(LPCWSTR,DWORD,DWORD,LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES,DWORD,DWORD,HANDLE)': cannot convert argument 1 from 'const char [8]' to 'LPCWSTR'

Severity	Code	Description	Project	File	Line	Suppression State	Details
Error (active)	E0167	argument of type "const char *" is incompatible with parameter of type "LPCWSTR" (aka "const WCHAR *")	Project2	C:\Users\rooth\source\repos\Project2\Project2\msoftcon.cpp	16

Mind you it's referring to msoftcon.cpp, which I found and didn't do anything to except update _getch() because the former has been depreciated, but I can't move on until i figure this out.

[2kaud]

What is the line causing the error? Would you post it please.

It looks like you're trying to pass a pointer to a char (char *) as a parameter to CreateFileW that is expecting a Unicode pointer (WCAHR*).

Is your project set to use Unicode or ASCII? Usually you wouldn't use CreateFIleW() you'd just use CreateFile().
If your project is set to use Unicode (and that is wanted) and you want to pass a char* then use CreateFIleA() instead of CreateFIleW()

[dellthinker]

What is the line causing the error? Would you post it please.

It looks like you're trying to pass a pointer to a char (char *) as a parameter to CreateFileW that is expecting a Unicode pointer (WCAHR*).

Is your project set to use Unicode or ASCII? Usually you wouldn't use CreateFIleW() you'd just use CreateFile().
If your project is set to use Unicode (and that is wanted) and you want to pass a char* then use CreateFIleA() instead of CreateFIleW()

It was the call to CreateFile in this code. Both the .cpp and .h files are required in your project to draw colorful circles in the console.

Solution: 1. Use Wide String Literals: If you're using string literals, prefix them with L to create wide string literals. For example, "Hello" becomes L"Hello".

hConsole = CreateFile(L"CONOUT$", GENERIC_WRITE | GENERIC_READ,
                   FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE,
                   0L, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, 0L);  // This is the line that throws an error

As it turns out trying to build this will yield a bunch of errors, putch() is depreciated so you have to use _putch and you have to add L for Wide String Literals. See Microsoft Learn for more details.
Solved.