Error using SHFileOperation() to copy a folder

Question

I am trying to use SHFileOperation() to copy a folder, but get this error:

a value of type "const char *" cannot be assigned to an entity of type "PCZZWSTR"

for both s.pTo and s.pFrom.

The code I'm using is:

SHFILEOPSTRUCT s = { 0 };
s.hwnd = hWnd;
s.wFunc = FO_COPY;
s.fFlags = FOF_SILENT;
s.pTo = "C:\\Users\\styler\\Desktop\\Folder1\0";
s.pFrom = "C:\\Users\\styler\\Desktop\\Software\\Folder2\\Folder3\\*\0";
SHFileOperation(&s);

What am I doing wrong in s.pTo and s.pFrom? I am setting those equal to the target folder and the source folder, but why is this not working?

Answer 1

The compiler is telling you that you are trying to assign char string literals to wchar_t string pointers (PCZZWSTR = CONST WCHAR *). That means you must be compiling with UNICODE defined, where SHFileOperation() maps to SHFileOperationW() which expects wchar_t* string pointers instead of char* string pointers.

So, you need to prefix your string literals with the L prefix, eg:

SHFILEOPSTRUCT s = { 0 };
s.hwnd = hWnd;
s.wFunc = FO_COPY;
s.fFlags = FOF_SILENT;
s.pTo = L"C:\\Users\\styler\\Desktop\\Folder1\0";
s.pFrom = L"C:\\Users\\styler\\Desktop\\Software\\Folder2\\Folder3\\*\0";
SHFileOperation(&s);

Or, since you are actually using the TCHAR version of SHFileOperation(), use the TEXT() macro to match your string literals to the actual character type used by TCHAR:

SHFILEOPSTRUCT s = { 0 };
s.hwnd = hWnd;
s.wFunc = FO_COPY;
s.fFlags = FOF_SILENT;
s.pTo = TEXT("C:\\Users\\styler\\Desktop\\Folder1\0");
s.pFrom = TEXT("C:\\Users\\styler\\Desktop\\Software\\Folder2\\Folder3\\*\0");
SHFileOperation(&s);