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RtlStringCchCopyA function (ntstrsafe.h)

  • Article

The RtlStringCchCopyW and RtlStringCchCopyA functions copy a null-terminated source string into a destination buffer of specified length.

Syntax

NTSTRSAFEDDI RtlStringCchCopyA(
  [out] NTSTRSAFE_PSTR  pszDest,
  [in]  size_t          cchDest,
  [in]  NTSTRSAFE_PCSTR pszSrc
);

Parameters

[out] pszDest

A pointer to a caller-supplied buffer that receives the copied string. The string at pszSrc is copied to the buffer at pszDest and terminated with a null character.

[in] cchDest

The size, in characters, of the destination buffer. The maximum number of characters allowed is NTSTRSAFE_MAX_CCH.

[in] pszSrc

A pointer to a caller-supplied, null-terminated string.

Return value

The function returns one of the NTSTATUS values that are listed in the following table. For information about how to test NTSTATUS values, see Using NTSTATUS Values.

Return code Description
STATUS_SUCCESS
 This success status means source data was present, the string was copied without truncation, and the resultant destination buffer is null-terminated.
STATUS_BUFFER_OVERFLOW
 This warning status means the copy operation did not complete due to insufficient buffer space. The destination buffer contains a truncated, null-terminated version of the intended result.
STATUS_INVALID_PARAMETER
 This error status means the function received an invalid input parameter. For more information, see the following paragraph.

The function returns the STATUS_INVALID_PARAMETER value when:

  • The value in cchDest is larger than the maximum buffer size.
  • A NULL pointer was present.
  • The destination buffer length was zero at entry.

Remarks

RtlStringCchCopyW and RtlStringCchCopyA should be used instead of the following functions:

  • strcpy
  • wcscpy
These functions are not replacements for strncpy. Use RtlStringCchCopyN or RtlStringCchCopyNEx to replace strncpy.

The size, in characters, of the destination buffer is provided to RtlStringCchCopyW and RtlStringCchCopyA to ensure that they do not write past the end of the buffer.

Use RtlStringCchCopyW to handle Unicode strings and RtlStringCchCopyA to handle ANSI strings. The form you use depends your data, as shown in the following table.

String data type String literal Function
WCHAR L"string" RtlStringCchCopyW
char "string" RtlStringCchCopyA
 

If pszSrc and pszDest point to overlapping strings, the behavior of the function is undefined.

Neither pszSrc nor pszDest can be NULL. If you need to handle NULL string pointer values, use RtlStringCchCopyEx.

For more information about the safe string functions, see Using Safe String Functions.

Requirements

Requirement Value
Minimum supported client Available in Windows XP with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and later versions of Windows.
Target Platform Desktop
Header ntstrsafe.h (include Ntstrsafe.h)
Library Ntstrsafe.lib
IRQL Any if strings being manipulated are always resident in memory, otherwise PASSIVE_LEVEL

See also

RtlStringCbCopy

RtlStringCchCopyEx