STL strings and Unicode

[sethjackson]

If I am understanding correctly std::string is ANSI only, however STL comes to the rescue with std::wstring which is for Unicode only. Am I correct?

So is the code below correct? Then instead of using std::string, or std::wstring I could use String? I think I'm right, but I'm not sure......

Code (cpp) Select Expand


#ifndef STRING_H
#define STRING_H

    #ifdef UNICODE

        #include <wstring>

        typedef std::wstring String;

    #else

        #include <string>

        typedef std::string String;

    #endif

#endif // STRING_H


[TDragon]

wstring is not a standard C++ header; as far as I know, std::wstring is defined in the <string> header. Other than that, I expect your code would work.

It may interest you to know that std::string and std::wstring are only typedefs of an underlying "basic_string" template:

Code Select Expand


typedef basic_string<char, char_traits<char>, allocator<char> > string;
typedef basic_string<wchar_t, char_traits<wchar_t>, allocator<wchar_t> > wstring;


This would in essence allow you to make a string out of any data type (PODs are easiest).

[sethjackson]

wstring is not a standard C++ header; as far as I know, std::wstring is defined in the <string> header. Other than that, I expect your code would work.

It may interest you to know that std::string and std::wstring are only typedefs of an underlying "basic_string" template:

Code Select Expand


typedef basic_string<char, char_traits<char>, allocator<char> > string;
typedef basic_string<wchar_t, char_traits<wchar_t>, allocator<wchar_t> > wstring;


This would in essence allow you to make a string out of any data type (PODs are easiest).

Cool.  Thanks for the answer.