Cannot assign lpCmdLine parameter to a char* pointer - c++

Question

This code check run application this param:
INT APIENTRY _tWinMain(HINSTANCE hInst, HINSTANCE hPrevInst, LPTSTR lpCmdLine, INT iShow)
{
char* szCmdLine = lpCmdLine;
...
}
Error this lines : error C2440: 'initializing' cannot convert from 'LPTSTR' to 'char *'

Answer 1

Its because LPTSTR could be LPSTR or LPWSTR considening project UNICODE settings. When unicode is enabled application use LPWSTR, if not LPSTR.
LPSTR is just an alias for char*. LPWSTR - wchar_t*. T in LPTSTR mean TCHAR type which defenition can be char or wchar_t whatever UNICODE or _UNICODE symbol is defined in your project.
LP means "long pointer", long is 32 bit memory address. STR - string.
So lets describe LPSTR - "long pointer to ANSI string"; LPWSTR - "long pointer to wide character string" and LPTSTR - "long pointer to TCHAR string".
To W or T letter can be added prefix C like LPCSTR, LPCTSTR, LPCWSTR wich means that these pointers are constant like const char* or const wchar_t*.
So your code must look like:
INT APIENTRY _tWinMain(HINSTANCE hInst, HINSTANCE hPrevInst, LPTSTR lpCmdLine, INT iShow)
{
TCHAR* szCmdLine = lpCmdLine;
...
}
or
INT APIENTRY _tWinMain(HINSTANCE hInst, HINSTANCE hPrevInst, LPTSTR lpCmdLine, INT iShow)
{
LPTSTR szCmdLine = lpCmdLine;
...
}