diff --git a/icu4c/source/common/resbund.cpp b/icu4c/source/common/resbund.cpp
index 13fd9de54a0..ca7bfedd13f 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/common/resbund.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/common/resbund.cpp
@@ -249,12 +249,10 @@ ResourceBundle::constructForLocale(const UnicodeString& path,
                                    const Locale& locale,
                                    UErrorCode& error)
 {
-    char name[128];
-    int32_t patlen = path.length();
+    char name[300];
 
-    if(patlen > 0) {
-        path.extract(0, patlen, name);
-        name[patlen] = '\0';
+    if(!path.empty()) {
+        path.extract(name, sizeof(name), 0, error);
         resource = ures_open(name, locale.getName(), &error);
     } else {
         resource = ures_open(0, locale.getName(), &error);
diff --git a/icu4c/source/i18n/umsg.cpp b/icu4c/source/i18n/umsg.cpp
index 81fcd914f1e..cdcb9bfd9b4 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/i18n/umsg.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/i18n/umsg.cpp
@@ -763,10 +763,15 @@ umsg_vformat(   UMessageFormat *fmt,
                 UErrorCode     *status)
 {
 
-    if(U_FAILURE(*status))
+    if(status==0 || U_FAILURE(*status))
     {
         return -1;
     }
+    if(resultLength<0 || (resultLength>0 && result==0)) {
+        *status=U_ILLEGAL_ARGUMENT_ERROR;
+        return -1;
+    }
+
     int32_t count =0;
     const Formattable::Type* argTypes = ((MessageFormat*)fmt)->getFormatTypeList(count);
     Formattable args[MessageFormat::kMaxFormat];
@@ -820,16 +825,7 @@ umsg_vformat(   UMessageFormat *fmt,
         return -1;
     }
 
-    if(result ==NULL || resultLength < resultStr.length()){
-        *status = U_BUFFER_OVERFLOW_ERROR;
-    }else{
-        /* copy the resultStr to target buffer */
-        //u_strcpy(result, resultStr.getUChars());
-        int len = resultStr.length();
-        resultStr.extract(0,len,result);
-        result[len]=0;/* null terminate the string */
-    }
-    return resultStr.length();
+    return resultStr.extract(result, resultStr.length(), *status);
 }
 
 U_CAPI void
@@ -898,7 +894,6 @@ umsg_vparse(UMessageFormat *fmt,
         case Formattable::kString:
             aString = va_arg(ap, UChar*);
             args[i].getString(temp);
-            //u_strcpy(aString, temp.getUChars());
             len = temp.length();
             temp.extract(0,len,aString);
             aString[len]=0;
diff --git a/icu4c/source/i18n/unum.cpp b/icu4c/source/i18n/unum.cpp
index 7fe7e9c9bc2..336da7c94c4 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/i18n/unum.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/i18n/unum.cpp
@@ -687,12 +687,7 @@ unum_getSymbol(UNumberFormat *fmt,
   }
 
   UnicodeString s=((DecimalFormat *)fmt)->getDecimalFormatSymbols()->getSymbol((DecimalFormatSymbols::ENumberFormatSymbol)symbol);
-  int32_t length=s.length();
-  if(buffer!=NULL && length<size-1) {
-    s.extract(0, length, buffer);
-    buffer[length]=0;
-  }
-  return length;
+  return s.extract(buffer, size, *status);
 }
 
 U_CAPI void U_EXPORT2