C# how to use WM_GETTEXT / GetWindowText API / Window Title
public class GetTextTestClass{
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "SendMessage", CharSet = System.Runtime.InteropServices.CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern bool SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, int wParam, StringBuilder lParam);
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern IntPtr SendMessage(int hWnd, int Msg, int wparam, int lparam);
const int WM_GETTEXT = 0x000D;
const int WM_GETTEXTLENGTH = 0x000E;
public string GetControlText(IntPtr hWnd){
// Get the size of the string required to hold the window title (including trailing null.)
Int32 titleSize = SendMessage((int)hWnd, WM_GETTEXTLENGTH, 0, 0).ToInt32();
// If titleSize is 0, there is no title so return an empty string (or null)
if (titleSize == 0)
return String.Empty;
StringBuilder title = new StringBuilder(titleSize + 1);
SendMessage(hWnd, (int)WM_GETTEXT, title.Capacity, title);
return title.ToString();
}
}
GetWindowText won't give you the content of edit windows from other applications - it only supports default-managed text [like the captions of labels] across processes to prevent hangs... you'll have to send WM_GETTEXT.
You'll need to use a StringBuilder version of SendMessage:
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, UInt32 Msg, IntPtr wParam, [Out] StringBuilder lParam);
const int WM_GETTEXT = 0xD;
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(65535);
// needs to be big enough for the whole text
SendMessage(hWnd_of_Notepad_Editor, WM_GETTEXT, sb.Length, sb);
Have a look at http://pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32/GetWindowText.html and also the documentation on MSDN. Below you find a short code example how to use the GetWindowText method.