need help using char* return from winamp API

[nandor]

ret = SendMessageLong(hWndWinamp, WM_USER, index, IPC_GETPLAYLISTFILE)

where:

WM_USER = &H400,
index = index of the desired song in the current playlist,
IPC_GETPLAYLISTFILE = 211.

Equivalent C declaration is:

char *name = SendMessage(hwnd_winamp, WM_USER, index, IPC_GETPLAYLISTFILE);

Which returns a char* - how do I use this in VB?

[Megatron]

I believe that translates to a String.

[nandor]

Thanks Megatron - that's what I thought too - but I don't seem to be getting the right info back.

If I assign it straight to a string I get a whole lot of numbers - ie. temp = "412329"

I must be using the API call incorrectly.

[gwdash]

you could be getting the memory address for it, but that doesn't make since, since it would go out of scope as soon as the SendMessage call ended! I must be misthinking this

[nandor]

hmmmmm

What does putting '&' at the end of a variable do?

ie.

text& = SendMessageLong(hWndWinamp, WM_USER, index, IPC_GETPLAYLISTFILE)

[gwdash]

not the same thing as in C. it sets the data type to long

[Megatron]

Try playing around with pointers (StrPtr), and CopyMemory.