How to print the error message of GetLastError() in a textual form?

Question

Hi, how could the last error message be printed?

It gives me an integer instead of a text message.

Thanks.

Answer 1

FormatMessage will turn GetLastError's integer return into a text message.

Answer 2

In general, you need to use FormatMessage to convert from a Win32 error code to text.

From the MSDN documentation:

Formats a message string. The function requires a message definition as input. The message definition can come from a buffer passed into the function. It can come from a message table resource in an already-loaded module. Or the caller can ask the function to search the system's message table resource(s) for the message definition. The function finds the message definition in a message table resource based on a message identifier and a language identifier. The function copies the formatted message text to an output buffer, processing any embedded insert sequences if requested.

The declaration of FormatMessage:

DWORD WINAPI FormatMessage(
  __in      DWORD dwFlags,
  __in_opt  LPCVOID lpSource,
  __in      DWORD dwMessageId, // your error code
  __in      DWORD dwLanguageId,
  __out     LPTSTR lpBuffer,
  __in      DWORD nSize,
  __in_opt  va_list *Arguments
);

Answer 3

MSDN has some sample code that demonstrates how to use FormatMessage() and GetLastError() together: Retrieving the Last-Error Code