[Lazarus] Windows API calls and german Umlauts

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Wed, 9 Mar 2016, John Landmesser wrote:

> Hi,
>  
> if i call a windows API function for special folder, like:
>  
> 
> uses 
> ...
> shlobj;
>  
> var
>   AppDataPath: Array[0..MaxPathLen] of Char;
> begin
>
>   SHGetSpecialFolderPath(0,AppDataPath,CSIDL_STARTUP,false);
> end;
>  
> I get on a german localized Windows XP a path containing  "\Startmenü\", but the "ü" is "?" in the resulting string.
>  
> Howto convert  the chars in AppDataPath to get the "Umlauts" correct?

Use the W variant of the call, and user widechar.

  var
    AppDataPath: Array[0..MaxPathLen] of WideChar;
  begin
    SHGetSpecialFolderPathW(0,AppDataPath,CSIDL_STARTUP,false);

Then convert to UTF8 using UTF8Encode() if you want to display it in a LCL
application.

Michael.