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Win32 GetLastError() Example

By Dag, on December 30th, 2016

Here is a working example of how to format a proper error message that I used while working on a Win32 application in Visual Studio 2008 (Visual C++). The code should be wrapped in a function for multiple calls.

DWORD err = GetLastError();
LPVOID lpMsgBuf;
FormatMessage(FORMAT_MESSAGE_ALLOCATE_BUFFER | 
              FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM | 
              FORMAT_MESSAGE_IGNORE_INSERTS,
              NULL, 
              GetLastError(), 
              MAKELANGID(LANG_NEUTRAL, SUBLANG_DEFAULT), // Default language
              (LPTSTR) &lpMsgBuf, 
              0, 
              NULL);

MessageBoxA( NULL, (LPCTSTR)lpMsgBuf, "Error", MB_OK | MB_ICONINFORMATION );
// Free the buffer.
LocalFree( lpMsgBuf );