Working Around the STRINGTABLE 255 Character Limit

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows versions 3.0 and 3.1

SUMMARY

Windows STRINGTABLE resources are limited to 255 characters per string. However, it is possible to work with longer strings using the technique described in this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The following function, MyLoadString, will allow strings longer than 255 characters to be loaded. Using the exclamation mark ("!") to indicate that a particular string is part of a longer whole is not required; any character that does not otherwise start a string may be used for this purpose. The string IDs used for pieces of the same string must be consecutive.

MyLoadString(HANDLE hInst, WORD wID, LPSTR szBuf) {

  int i, j;
  char szLoadedString[256];   // temporary buffer

  *szBuf = 0;

  do
    {
    LoadString(hInst, wID, szLoadedString, 255);

    if ('!' == *szLoadedString)
      {
      lstrcat(szBuf, (szLoadedString + 1));
      wID++;
      }
    else
      lstrcat(szBuf, szLoadedString);
    }
  while ('!' == *szLoadedString);

  return lstrlen(szBuf);

The RC file will take on a form resembling the following:

STRINGTABLE BEGIN

  100, "!This is the first part of the string to be loaded,"
  101, "!this is the second part, "
  102, "and this is the third"