warning C4996: 'strncpy' was declared deprecated

[QuantNeeds]

Hello,

I am not sure what the error means. I think it has to do with how I called the strncpy function. My error is:

.cpp(70) : warning C4996: 'strncpy' was declared deprecated

My code is the following:

// set the tool name
void Tools::setToolName( string toolNameString)
{
   // copy at most 20 characters for the tool name
    const char *toolNameValue = toolNameString.data();
    int length = int(toolNameString.size());
    length = ( length < 20 ? length : 19 );
    strncpy( toolName, toolNameValue, length);
    toolName[ length ] = '\0'; // append null character to lastName
}

[ArkM]

Don't worry, it's not an error: it's a VC++ warning. Ignore it (in this case). See notes in MSDN help page on this function (click strncpy then press F1).

[CoolGamer48]

It means that strncpy is old and/or something better is around to use instead of it.

[vmanes]

MS (and probably other compiler vendors) are revising the string function to ensure greater safety. With strcpy, strcat and their variations, it's very easy to try to stuff more into a string array than it can hold. Therein lies the opening that many malware authors have exploited.

You can update your code to use the secure versions (they have an "_s" suffix and pass a parameter that is the size of the destination array), or continue with the old tried and true versions, adding the following to your code to suppress the warnings.
~~~~~~~~
#define _CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE
#define _CRT_NONSTDC_NO_DEPRECATE

Use these #define's to halt the many warnings given by
Visual C++ 2005/2008 for use of "unsafe" string functions.
Place them before your #include statements.

see the link below for a full list of the functions that have
secure variations available

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms235384(VS.80).aspx

[Salem]

Of course the real answer would be to use another std::string which is totally safe, as opposed to some non-portable API which is only safe so long as the programmer knows what they're doing.

[QuantNeeds]

thank you - this worked