What's wrong with strcpy(), strcat(), sprintf (), .... and C2664 error?

Question

I get used to use strcat(), strcpy(), sprintf(), ... for several decades. Lately, I found they're rejected by VC++2019. From data I got from web, I found they should be accepted by VC++, but they are not. For instance, I got below error:
1>D:\programs\Neurotek\Neurotec_Biometric_11_2_SDK\Tutorials\Biometrics\CPP\FRV_Dll\FRV_Dll.cpp(366,46): error C2664: 'wchar_t *wcscpy(wchar_t *,const wchar_t *)': cannot convert argument 1 from 'char [500]' to 'wchar_t *'

for statement:
std::strcpy (temppath, REG_TEMP_TEMPL_FILE);

where
char temppath[500];

define REG_TEMP_IMAGE_FILE "C:\FR-data\FRV_service_temp\regTempImage.jpg"

How come? How can I use string processing functions like strcpy, strcat, ssprintf, as before?

Answer 1

Hello,
as already said, you use the UNICODE character set.
strcpy, scanf, etc. are functions for non-UNICODE code.
Have a look at the documentation of the old C-function, for example strcpy: strcpy-wcscpy-mbscpy
I suggest you should use the TCHAR routines when you use the C-routines. Have a look in the documentation, there is _tcscpy for TCHAR.
When you build in UNICODE, TCHAR ist the wide character, when you use MBCS, then it's the "normal" char-type.
So when you use the TCHAR-routine, then the compiler itself uses the correct function in your character set.
Here is an explanation for using TCHAR: What-are-TCHAR-WCHAR-LPSTR-LPWSTR-LPCTSTR-etc
Your code would look like this:

TCHAR temppath[500];  
_tcscpy(temppath, REG_TEMP_TEMPL_FILE);  

Regards, Guido