how to read from text edit in QT4

I am using QT4.4. I want to create a mainwindow application with a textedit as my central widget. I have already done this project successfully in qt3. But qt 3 has a text() function in qtextedit that helps to read from text edit . Can anybody tell me a way to read text from text edit. Thanks in advance.

I am asking for a function which is equivalant to text() in QT 3

QTextEdit::toPlainText

u can also use toHtml() for reading rich text.

Thanks all.....I solved the problem ....... With toPlainText() function.....Once again thank you to all......