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 GetWindowText

The GetWindowText function copies the text of the specified window's title bar (if it has one) into a buffer. If the specified window is a control, the text of the control is copied. However, GetWindowText cannot retrieve the text of a control in another application.

Syntax

    int GetWindowText(
        HWND   hWnd,
        LPTSTR lpString,
        int    nMaxCount
    );

Parameters

• hWnd
  [in] Handle to the window or control containing the text.
• lpString
  [out] Pointer to the buffer that will receive the text. If the string is as long or longer than the buffer, the string is truncated and terminated with a NULL character.
• nMaxCount
  [in] Specifies the maximum number of characters to copy to the buffer, including the NULL character. If the text exceeds this limit, it is truncated.

Return Value

If the function succeeds, the return value is the length, in characters, of the copied string, not including the terminating NULL character. If the window has no title bar or text, if the title bar is empty, or if the window or control handle is invalid, the return value is zero. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

This function cannot retrieve the text of an edit control in another application.

Remarks

If the target window is owned by the current process, GetWindowText causes a WM_GETTEXT message to be sent to the specified window or control. If the target window is owned by another process and has a caption, GetWindowText retrieves the window caption text. If the window does not have a caption, the return value is a null string. This behavior is by design. It allows applications to call GetWindowText without becoming unresponsive if the process that owns the target window is not responding. However, if the target window is not responding and it belongs to the calling application, GetWindowText will cause the calling application to become unresponsive.

To retrieve the text of a control in another process, send a WM_GETTEXT message directly instead of calling GetWindowText.

Windows 95/98/Me: GetWindowTextW is supported by the Microsoft Layer for Unicode (MSLU). To use this, you must add certain files to your application, as outlined in Microsoft Layer for Unicode on Windows 95/98/Me Systems .

Function Information

• Minimum DLL Version user32.dll
• Header Declared in Winuser.h, include Windows.h
• Import library User32.lib
• Minimum operating systems Windows 95, Windows NT 3.1
• Unicode Implemented as ANSI and Unicode versions.

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Notebook exported on Monday, 7 July 2008, 18:56:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time