SysWin Resources

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Resources

Reads raw data embedded in a program's resources into a string or out to a file.

A resource script (.rc) compiled into the program can carry whole files: a PNG, a font, a database, as RCDATA. These two functions find such a resource by name or number and copy its bytes. The resource itself stays in the module, read-only; nothing has to be freed.

A resource is named either by a text name ("LOGO") or by a number written as text with a leading # ("#101"). The type defaults to RT_RCDATA (10); pass another type, such as RT_HTML or a custom type name, as the last argument.

Importing

#import "sys/win"
using win

Example

A program that copies the resource LOGO out of itself into logo.png. Put the line LOGO RCDATA "logo.png" in logo.rc and build with tiko logo.tiko logo.rc; built without the script, it reports that there is none:

#import "sys/win"
using win

dim bytes as string = ExtractResource( NULL, "LOGO" )
if len( bytes ) = 0 then
    print "this program carries no LOGO resource"
elseif ExtractResourceToFile( NULL, "LOGO", "logo.png" ) then
    print "wrote logo.png,"; len( bytes ); " bytes"
end if

Functions

Function	Does
ExtractResource	Returns the bytes of a resource as a string.
ExtractResourceToFile	Writes the bytes of a resource to a file.

Reference

ExtractResource

function ExtractResource( byval hInstance as HINSTANCE, byref wszResourceName as wstring, byval pResourceType as LPWSTR = MAKEINTRESOURCEW(10) ) as string

Finds a resource and returns a copy of its bytes in a string, which is a byte buffer here, not text: len() is the size of the resource and strptr() points at the first byte.

Parameter	Meaning
hInstance	The module that holds the resource; NULL for the program itself.
wszResourceName	The resource name, or # and its number ("#101").
pResourceType	The resource type; RT_RCDATA by default.

Returns the bytes, or "" when there is no such resource or it is empty.

Example

dim png as string = ExtractResource( NULL, "#101" )
print "resource 101 is"; len( png ); " bytes"

Microsoft Learn: FindResourceW

ExtractResourceToFile

function ExtractResourceToFile( byval hInstance as HINSTANCE, byref wszResourceName as wstring, byref wszFileName as wstring, byval pResourceType as LPWSTR = MAKEINTRESOURCEW(10) ) as boolean

Finds a resource and writes its bytes to a file, replacing a file of that name.

Parameter	Meaning
hInstance	The module that holds the resource; NULL for the program itself.
wszResourceName	The resource name, or # and its number ("#101").
wszFileName	The path of the file to write.
pResourceType	The resource type; RT_RCDATA by default.

Returns true when the file was written; false when there is no such resource, it is empty, or the file cannot be created or written.

Example

if ExtractResourceToFile( NULL, "MANUAL", GetExePathName() & "manual.pdf" ) = false then print "no manual"

Microsoft Learn: LoadResource

See also

• Category: sys/win
• Paths and files for building the output path
• Images (GDI+) for loading an image straight from a resource