MAKEINTRESOURCE

MAKEINTRESOURCE is a macro in the Windows API that converts an integer resource identifier into a pointer that can be used to reference that resource. It is defined in the windows.h header file. This macro is primarily used with functions that access resources, such as LoadIcon, LoadBitmap, LoadCursor, and LoadString.

The purpose of MAKEINTRESOURCE is to provide a consistent way to pass resource identifiers to API functions that expect a specific data type. Many Windows API functions that deal with resources are designed to accept either a pointer to a null-terminated string or an integer resource ID. The MAKEINTRESOURCE macro simplifies this by allowing developers to pass integer IDs in a way that the API expects.

When you use MAKEINTRESOURCE with an integer, it effectively casts that integer to a pointer. This is a common technique in Windows programming for handling resource IDs. For example, instead of directly passing a numeric constant like 101 to LoadIcon, you would use MAKEINTRESOURCE(101). The macro ensures that the value is represented in memory as a pointer, even though it originated as a simple integer. This allows the API functions to distinguish between a string resource name and an integer resource identifier.