# CodeGuru Technical FAQs > CodeGuru Individual FAQs >  MFC Edit Control: How to append text to an edit control?

## ovidiucucu

*Q:* Which is the best method to append text to an edit control?

*A:* One method is to call 'GetWindowText()' to get the initial text, append the new text to it, then put it back with 'SetWindowText()'.
This works, but is not practical, especially if the text lenght is huge and the appending is made very frequently.  

A better solution is to put the edit selection at the end of the initial text, then simply replace the selection with the text to append:



```
void CFoo::AppendTextToEditCtrl(CEdit& edit, LPCTSTR pszText)
{
   // get the initial text length
   int nLength = edit.GetWindowTextLength();
   // put the selection at the end of text
   edit.SetSel(nLength, nLength);
   // replace the selection
   edit.ReplaceSel(pszText);
}
```

For appending lines in a multiline edit control we must add CR/LF to the text:



```
void CFoo::AppendLineToMultilineEditCtrl(CEdit& edit, LPCTSTR pszText)
{
   CString strLine;
   // add CR/LF to text
   strLine.Format(_T("\r\n%s"), pszText);
   AppendTextToEditCtrl(edit, strLine);
}
```

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