How To Use LoadResource to Load Strings from a String Table

MORE INFORMATION

String resources are stored as UNICODE strings in the string table. The strings in the string table are arranged into segments or blocks of 16 strings each. String IDs are indexed from one.

The segment a string belongs to is determined by the value of the string's identifier. For example, strings with identifiers of 0 to 15 are in one segment, strings with identifiers of 16 to 31 are in a second segment, and so on. To move a string from one segment to another you need to change its identifier.

Below is a sample function, GetStringFromStringTable, that demonstrates how to load a string from an application's string table that matches the default language of the operating system.

   wchar_t* GetStringFromStringTable( UINT uStringID )
   {

      wchar_t   *pwchMem, *pwchCur;
      UINT      idRsrcBlk = uStringID / 16 + 1;
      int       strIndex  = uStringID % 16;
      HINSTANCE hModule = NULL;
      HRSRC     hResource = NULL;

      hResource = FindResourceEx( AfxGetResourceHandle(), RT_STRING,
                                  MAKEINTRESOURCE(idRsrcBlk),
                                  MAKELANGID(LANG_NEUTRAL,
                                             SUBLANG_DEFAULT) );

      if( hResource != NULL )
      {
         pwchMem = (wchar_t *)LoadResource( hModule, hResource );

         if( pwchMem != NULL )
         {
            pwchCur = pwchMem;
            for(int i = 0; i<16; i++ )
            {
               if( *pwchCur )
               {
                  int cchString = *pwchCur;  // String size in characters.
                  pwchCur++;
                  if( i == strIndex )
                  {
                     // The string has been found in the string table.
                     wchar_t *pwchTemp = new wchar_t[ cchString ];
                     wcsncpy( pwchTemp, pwchCur, cchString );
                    
                     return pwchTemp;
                  }
                  pwchCur += cchString;
               }
               else
                  pwchCur++;
            }
         }
      }
      return NULL;

   }