RasGetErrorStringA function (ras.h)

Article
02/22/2024

The RasGetErrorString function obtains an error message string for a specified RAS error value.

Syntax

DWORD RasGetErrorStringA(
  [in]  UINT  ResourceId,
  [out] LPSTR lpszString,
  [in]  DWORD InBufSize
);

Parameters

[in] ResourceId

Specifies the error value of interest. These are values returned by one of the RAS functions: those listed in the RasError.h header file.

[out] lpszString

Pointer to a buffer that receives the error string. This parameter must not be NULL.

[in] InBufSize

Specifies the size, in characters, of the buffer pointed to by lpszErrorString.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is ERROR_SUCCESS.

If the function fails, the return value is one of the following error codes or a value from Routing and Remote Access Error Codes or Winerror.h. There is no GetLastError information set by the RasGetErrorString function.

Value	Meaning
ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER	An invalid parameter was passed into the function.

Remarks

There is no way to determine in advance the exact size in characters of an error message, and thus the size of buffer required. Error messages will generally be 80 characters or fewer in size; a buffer size of 512 characters will always be adequate. A buffer of insufficient size causes the RasGetErrorString function to fail, returning ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER. Note that buffer sizes are specified in characters, not bytes; thus, the Unicode version of RasGetErrorString requires at least a 1024 byte buffer to guarantee that every error message fits.

Examples

The following code obtains an error string for the RAS error 633.


#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include "ras.h"
#include "rasdlg.h"
#include <tchar.h>

#define  ERROR_VAL 633
#define  BUFFER_SIZE 256

DWORD __cdecl wmain(){

    DWORD dwRetVal = ERROR_SUCCESS;
    UINT  uErrorValue = ERROR_VAL;
    DWORD cBufSize = BUFFER_SIZE;
    WCHAR lpszErrorString[BUFFER_SIZE];

    dwRetVal = RasGetErrorString(uErrorValue, lpszErrorString, cBufSize);

    if(dwRetVal == ERROR_SUCCESS){
        wprintf(L"Error Code %d: %s\n", uErrorValue, lpszErrorString);
    }else{
           wprintf(L"RasGetErrorString failed, Return Value: %d", dwRetVal);
    }

    return 0;
}

Note

The ras.h header defines RasGetErrorString as an alias which automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	ras.h
Library	Rasapi32.lib
DLL	Rasapi32.dll