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v-dirichards merged 4 commits into from
Jul 7, 2026
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Update documentation on accessing System.String characters #5940

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Update documentation on accessing System.String characters
AaronRobinsonMSFT Jul 6, 2026
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Update docs/dotnet/how-to-access-characters-in-a-system-string.md
AaronRobinsonMSFT Jul 6, 2026
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4 changes: 4 additions & 0 deletions docs/dotnet/how-to-access-characters-in-a-system-string.md
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Expand Up @@ -9,6 +9,10 @@ helpviewer_keywords: ["characters [C++], accessing in System::String", "examples

You can access characters of a <xref:System.String> object for high-performance calls to unmanaged functions that take `wchar_t*` strings. The method yields an interior pointer to the first character of the <xref:System.String> object. This pointer can be manipulated directly or pinned and passed to a function expecting an ordinary **`wchar_t`** string.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> Interior pointers into <xref:System.String> objects must be treated as `const`. A <xref:System.String> object is considered immutable and changing its content can destabilize the runtime.
> For more information see [Unsafe code best practices - 17. String mutations](/dotnet/standard/unsafe-code/best-practices).

## Examples

`PtrToStringChars` returns a <xref:System.Char>, which is an interior pointer (also known as a `byref`). As such, it is subject to garbage collection. You don't have to pin this pointer unless you're going to pass it to a native function.
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