c++stringconcatenationbstr

How to concatenate 2 BSTRs with a space in between them?


I have some methods that return a BSTR, and I need to concatenate those BSTRs, but it should have a space between each BSTR:

BSTR a + " " + BSTR b + " " + BSTR c + and so on...

I found a function that concatenates two BSTRs, however I cannot insert a space between each BSTR.

Sample code:

static BSTR Concatenate2BSTRs(BSTR a, BSTR b)  
{  
    auto lengthA = SysStringLen(a);  
    auto lengthB = SysStringLen(b);  

    auto result = SysAllocStringLen(NULL, lengthA + lengthB);  

    memcpy(result, a, lengthA * sizeof(OLECHAR));  
    memcpy(result + lengthA, b, lengthB * sizeof(OLECHAR));  

    result[lengthA + lengthB] = 0;  
    return result;  
}  

Also, I tried to wrap the first BSTR into a _bstr_t then use the += operator to insert a space, but the first BSTR value is lost.

Any help?

Update

@Remy Lebeau answer works.
However, I tried to do the same steps, but for 6 BSTRs, and it outputs empty string!

Code:

    memcpy(result, a, lengthA * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    result[lengthA] = L' ';
    memcpy(result + lengthA+1, b, lengthB * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    result[lengthB] = L' ';
    memcpy(result + lengthB+1, c, lengthC * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    result[lengthC] = L' ';
    memcpy(result + lengthC+1, d, lengthD * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    result[lengthD] = L' ';
    memcpy(result + lengthD+1, e, lengthE * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    result[lengthE] = L' ';
    memcpy(result + lengthE+1, f, lengthF * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    result[lengthE + 1 + lengthF] = L'\0';

Thank you very much.


Solution

  • Simply include room for the space character in your length calculation, and then assign the actual space character in the allocated memory, eg:

    static BSTR Concatenate2BSTRs(BSTR a, BSTR b)  
    {  
        auto lengthA = SysStringLen(a);  
        auto lengthB = SysStringLen(b);  
    
        auto result = SysAllocStringLen(NULL, lengthA + 1 + lengthB);
        if (result) {
            memcpy(result, a, lengthA * sizeof(OLECHAR));
            result[lengthA] = L' ';
            memcpy(result + lengthA + 1, b, lengthB * sizeof(OLECHAR));
            // no need to null-terminate manually, SysAllocStringLen() already did it...
            //result[lengthA + 1 + lengthB] = L'\0';
        }
    
        return result;  
    }  
    

    Online Demo


    UPDATE: Your approach for 6 BSTRs does not work because your memcpy() calls are copying data to the wrong indexes within the result, thus overwriting previous data.

    Use a variable to keep track of where you need to insert next, eg:

    UINT offset = 0;
    memcpy(result + offset, a, lengthA * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    offset += lengthA;
    result[offset++] = L' ';
    memcpy(result + offset, b, lengthB * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    offset += lengthB;
    result[offset++] = L' ';
    memcpy(result + offset, c, lengthC * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    offset += lengthC;
    result[offset++] = L' ';
    memcpy(result + offset, d, lengthD * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    offset += lengthD;
    result[offset++] = L' ';
    memcpy(result + offset, e, lengthE * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    offset += lengthE;
    result[offset++] = L' ';
    memcpy(result + offset, f, lengthF * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    offset += lengthF;
    result[offset] = L'\0'; // <-- should not be needed
    

    Alternatively:

    OLECHAR *ptr = result;
    memcpy(ptr, a, lengthA * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    ptr += lengthA;
    *ptr++ = L' ';
    memcpy(ptr, b, lengthB * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    ptr += lengthB;
    *ptr++ = L' ';
    memcpy(ptr, c, lengthC * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    ptr += lengthC;
    *ptr++ = L' ';
    memcpy(ptr, d, lengthD * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    ptr += lengthD;
    *ptr++ = L' ';
    memcpy(ptr, e, lengthE * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    ptr += lengthE;
    *ptr++ = L' ';
    memcpy(ptr, f, lengthF * sizeof(OLECHAR));
    ptr += lengthF;
    *ptr = L'\0'; // <-- should not be needed