How can I use DrawText() to display a variable?

Question

I can draw a string literal via DrawText():

DrawText (hdcWindow, "abc123", -1, &rc, DT_SINGLELINE);

However, this doesn't work with anything else. Specifically, I can't output the value stored in a variable, such as an int:

int variable = 5;
DrawText (hdcWindow, variable, -1, &rc, DT_SINGLELINE);

Or a char:

char variable = a;
DrawText (hdcWindow, variable, -1, &rc, DT_SINGLELINE);

How can I use DrawText() to display the contents of a variable? Why does using a string literal like "abc123" work but substituting it with variable doesn't?

There are lots of examples of converting an int to a string, and a constructor of `string` that takes a `char` and a size. — chris, Jul 08 '13 at 02:40
Repost : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17518784/how-to-use-d-in-c-particularly-in-drawtext?answertab=oldest#tab-top — Pierre Lebon, Jul 08 '13 at 03:42

Jerry Coffin · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-08T02:50:24.577

7

DrawText only knows how to display character strings. To display anything else, you need to convert to a character string first, then display that.

void show_int(int x, /* ... */) { 
     std::stringstream buffer;
     buffer << x;

     DrawText(hdcWindow, buffer.str().c_str(), -1, &rc, DT_SINGLELINE);
}

edited Jul 08 '13 at 02:50

answered Jul 08 '13 at 02:40

Jerry Coffin

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what do i need to include? (#include) – Jacob Padgett Jul 08 '13 at 02:45
@JacobPadgett, `` – chris Jul 08 '13 at 02:45
do you know where i can get it? because my dev-cpp didnt come with it. Thank you, as well, Chris! – Jacob Padgett Jul 08 '13 at 02:46
@JacobPadgett, It must be pretty old then, but there's the outdated `strstream`. There's also `boost::lexical_cast` if you have Boost. – chris Jul 08 '13 at 02:47
i will use it then. thank you guys. we are all done now, i think. – Jacob Padgett Jul 08 '13 at 02:48

How can I use DrawText() to display a variable?

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