Is it possible to concatenate string and wstring? [duplicate] - c++

string s = "おはよう";
wstring ws = FUNCTION(s, ws);
How would i assign the contents of s to ws?
Searched google and used some techniques but they can't assign the exact content. The content is distorted.

Assuming that the input string in your example (おはよう) is a UTF-8 encoded (which it isn't, by the looks of it, but let's assume it is for the sake of this explanation :-)) representation of a Unicode string of your interest, then your problem can be fully solved with the standard library (C++11 and newer) alone.
The TL;DR version:
#include <locale>
#include <codecvt>
#include <string>
std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8_utf16<wchar_t>> converter;
std::string narrow = converter.to_bytes(wide_utf16_source_string);
std::wstring wide = converter.from_bytes(narrow_utf8_source_string);
Longer online compilable and runnable example:
(They all show the same example. There are just many for redundancy...)
http://ideone.com/KA1oty
http://ide.geeksforgeeks.org/5pRLSh
http://rextester.com/DIJZK52174
Note (old):
As pointed out in the comments and explained in https://stackoverflow.com/a/17106065/6345 there are cases when using the standard library to convert between UTF-8 and UTF-16 might give unexpected differences in the results on different platforms. For a better conversion, consider std::codecvt_utf8 as described on http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/locale/codecvt_utf8
Note (new):
Since the codecvt header is deprecated in C++17, some worry about the solution presented in this answer were raised. However, the C++ standards committee added an important statement in http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2017/p0618r0.html saying
this library component should be retired to Annex D, along side , until a suitable replacement is standardized.
So in the foreseeable future, the codecvt solution in this answer is safe and portable.

int StringToWString(std::wstring &ws, const std::string &s)
{
std::wstring wsTmp(s.begin(), s.end());
ws = wsTmp;
return 0;
}

Your question is underspecified. Strictly, that example is a syntax error. However, std::mbstowcs is probably what you're looking for.
It is a C-library function and operates on buffers, but here's an easy-to-use idiom, courtesy of Mooing Duck:
std::wstring ws(s.size(), L' '); // Overestimate number of code points.
ws.resize(std::mbstowcs(&ws[0], s.c_str(), s.size())); // Shrink to fit.

If you are using Windows/Visual Studio and need to convert a string to wstring you could use:
#include <AtlBase.h>
#include <atlconv.h>
...
string s = "some string";
CA2W ca2w(s.c_str());
wstring w = ca2w;
printf("%s = %ls", s.c_str(), w.c_str());
Same procedure for converting a wstring to string (sometimes you will need to specify a codepage):
#include <AtlBase.h>
#include <atlconv.h>
...
wstring w = L"some wstring";
CW2A cw2a(w.c_str());
string s = cw2a;
printf("%s = %ls", s.c_str(), w.c_str());
You could specify a codepage and even UTF8 (that's pretty nice when working with JNI/Java). A standard way of converting a std::wstring to utf8 std::string is showed in this answer.
//
// using ATL
CA2W ca2w(str, CP_UTF8);
//
// or the standard way taken from the answer above
#include <codecvt>
#include <string>
// convert UTF-8 string to wstring
std::wstring utf8_to_wstring (const std::string& str) {
std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8<wchar_t>> myconv;
return myconv.from_bytes(str);
}
// convert wstring to UTF-8 string
std::string wstring_to_utf8 (const std::wstring& str) {
std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8<wchar_t>> myconv;
return myconv.to_bytes(str);
}
If you want to know more about codepages there is an interesting article on Joel on Software: The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets.
These CA2W (Convert Ansi to Wide=unicode) macros are part of ATL and MFC String Conversion Macros, samples included.
Sometimes you will need to disable the security warning #4995', I don't know of other workaround (to me it happen when I compiled for WindowsXp in VS2012).
#pragma warning(push)
#pragma warning(disable: 4995)
#include <AtlBase.h>
#include <atlconv.h>
#pragma warning(pop)
Edit:
Well, according to this article the article by Joel appears to be: "while entertaining, it is pretty light on actual technical details". Article: What Every Programmer Absolutely, Positively Needs To Know About Encoding And Character Sets To Work With Text.

Windows API only, pre C++11 implementation, in case someone needs it:
#include <stdexcept>
#include <vector>
#include <windows.h>
using std::runtime_error;
using std::string;
using std::vector;
using std::wstring;
wstring utf8toUtf16(const string & str)
{
if (str.empty())
return wstring();
size_t charsNeeded = ::MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0,
str.data(), (int)str.size(), NULL, 0);
if (charsNeeded == 0)
throw runtime_error("Failed converting UTF-8 string to UTF-16");
vector<wchar_t> buffer(charsNeeded);
int charsConverted = ::MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0,
str.data(), (int)str.size(), &buffer[0], buffer.size());
if (charsConverted == 0)
throw runtime_error("Failed converting UTF-8 string to UTF-16");
return wstring(&buffer[0], charsConverted);
}

Here's a way to combining string, wstring and mixed string constants to wstring. Use the wstringstream class.
This does NOT work for multi-byte character encodings. This is just a dumb way of throwing away type safety and expanding 7 bit characters from std::string into the lower 7 bits of each character of std:wstring. This is only useful if you have a 7-bit ASCII strings and you need to call an API that requires wide strings.
#include <sstream>
std::string narrow = "narrow";
std::wstring wide = L"wide";
std::wstringstream cls;
cls << " abc " << narrow.c_str() << L" def " << wide.c_str();
std::wstring total= cls.str();

From char* to wstring:
char* str = "hello worlddd";
wstring wstr (str, str+strlen(str));
From string to wstring:
string str = "hello worlddd";
wstring wstr (str.begin(), str.end());
Note this only works well if the string being converted contains only ASCII characters.

This variant of it is my favourite in real life. It converts the input, if it is valid UTF-8, to the respective wstring. If the input is corrupted, the wstring is constructed out of the single bytes. This is extremely helpful if you cannot really be sure about the quality of your input data.
std::wstring convert(const std::string& input)
{
try
{
std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8_utf16<wchar_t>> converter;
return converter.from_bytes(input);
}
catch(std::range_error& e)
{
size_t length = input.length();
std::wstring result;
result.reserve(length);
for(size_t i = 0; i < length; i++)
{
result.push_back(input[i] & 0xFF);
}
return result;
}
}

using Boost.Locale:
ws = boost::locale::conv::utf_to_utf<wchar_t>(s);

You can use boost path or std path; which is a lot more easier.
boost path is easier for cross-platform application
#include <boost/filesystem/path.hpp>
namespace fs = boost::filesystem;
//s to w
std::string s = "xxx";
auto w = fs::path(s).wstring();
//w to s
std::wstring w = L"xxx";
auto s = fs::path(w).string();
if you like to use std:
#include <filesystem>
namespace fs = std::filesystem;
//The same
c++ older version
#include <experimental/filesystem>
namespace fs = std::experimental::filesystem;
//The same
The code within still implement a converter which you dont have to unravel the detail.

For me the most uncomplicated option without big overhead is:
Include:
#include <atlbase.h>
#include <atlconv.h>
Convert:
char* whatever = "test1234";
std::wstring lwhatever = std::wstring(CA2W(std::string(whatever).c_str()));
If needed:
lwhatever.c_str();

String to wstring
std::wstring Str2Wstr(const std::string& str)
{
int size_needed = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, &str[0], (int)str.size(), NULL, 0);
std::wstring wstrTo(size_needed, 0);
MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, &str[0], (int)str.size(), &wstrTo[0], size_needed);
return wstrTo;
}
wstring to String
std::string Wstr2Str(const std::wstring& wstr)
{
typedef std::codecvt_utf8<wchar_t> convert_typeX;
std::wstring_convert<convert_typeX, wchar_t> converterX;
return converterX.to_bytes(wstr);
}

If you have QT and if you are lazy to implement a function and stuff you can use
std::string str;
QString(str).toStdWString()

Here is my super basic solution that might not work for everyone. But would work for a lot of people.
It requires usage of the Guideline Support Library.
Which is a pretty official C++ library that was designed by many C++ committee authors:
https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines
https://github.com/Microsoft/GSL
std::string to_string(std::wstring const & wStr)
{
std::string temp = {};
for (wchar_t const & wCh : wStr)
{
// If the string can't be converted gsl::narrow will throw
temp.push_back(gsl::narrow<char>(wCh));
}
return temp;
}
All my function does is allow the conversion if possible. Otherwise throw an exception.
Via the usage of gsl::narrow (https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines/blob/master/CppCoreGuidelines.md#es49-if-you-must-use-a-cast-use-a-named-cast)

method s2ws works well. Hope helps.
std::wstring s2ws(const std::string& s) {
std::string curLocale = setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
const char* _Source = s.c_str();
size_t _Dsize = mbstowcs(NULL, _Source, 0) + 1;
wchar_t *_Dest = new wchar_t[_Dsize];
wmemset(_Dest, 0, _Dsize);
mbstowcs(_Dest,_Source,_Dsize);
std::wstring result = _Dest;
delete []_Dest;
setlocale(LC_ALL, curLocale.c_str());
return result;
}

Based upon my own testing (On windows 8, vs2010) mbstowcs can actually damage original string, it works only with ANSI code page. If MultiByteToWideChar/WideCharToMultiByte can also cause string corruption - but they tends to replace characters which they don't know with '?' question marks, but mbstowcs tends to stop when it encounters unknown character and cut string at that very point. (I have tested Vietnamese characters on finnish windows).
So prefer Multi*-windows api function over analogue ansi C functions.
Also what I've noticed shortest way to encode string from one codepage to another is not use MultiByteToWideChar/WideCharToMultiByte api function calls but their analogue ATL macros: W2A / A2W.
So analogue function as mentioned above would sounds like:
wstring utf8toUtf16(const string & str)
{
USES_CONVERSION;
_acp = CP_UTF8;
return A2W( str.c_str() );
}
_acp is declared in USES_CONVERSION macro.
Or also function which I often miss when performing old data conversion to new one:
string ansi2utf8( const string& s )
{
USES_CONVERSION;
_acp = CP_ACP;
wchar_t* pw = A2W( s.c_str() );
_acp = CP_UTF8;
return W2A( pw );
}
But please notice that those macro's use heavily stack - don't use for loops or recursive loops for same function - after using W2A or A2W macro - better to return ASAP, so stack will be freed from temporary conversion.

std::string -> wchar_t[] with safe mbstowcs_s function:
auto ws = std::make_unique<wchar_t[]>(s.size() + 1);
mbstowcs_s(nullptr, ws.get(), s.size() + 1, s.c_str(), s.size());
This is from my sample code

use this code to convert your string to wstring
std::wstring string2wString(const std::string& s){
int len;
int slength = (int)s.length() + 1;
len = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, s.c_str(), slength, 0, 0);
wchar_t* buf = new wchar_t[len];
MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, s.c_str(), slength, buf, len);
std::wstring r(buf);
delete[] buf;
return r;
}
int main(){
std::wstring str="your string";
std::wstring wStr=string2wString(str);
return 0;
}

string s = "おはよう"; is an error.
You should use wstring directly:
wstring ws = L"おはよう";

Related

How to convert std::string to wchar_t*

std::regex regexpy("y:(.+?)\"");
std::smatch my;
regex_search(value.text, my, regexpy);
y = my[1];
std::wstring wide_string = std::wstring(y.begin(), y.end());
const wchar_t* p_my_string = wide_string.c_str();
wchar_t* my_string = const_cast<wchar_t*>(p_my_string);
URLDownloadToFile(my_string, aDest);
I'm using Unicode, the encoding of the source string is ASCII, UrlDownloadToFile expands to UrlDownloadToFileW (wchar_t*) the code above compiles in debug mode, but with a lot of warnings like:
warning C4244: 'argument': conversion from 'wchar_t' to 'const _Elem', possible loss of data
So do I ask, how I could convert a std::string to a wchar_t?
First off, you don't need the const_cast, as URLDownloadToFileW() takes a const wchar_t* as input, so passing it wide_string.c_str() will work as-is:
URLDownloadToFile(..., wide_string.c_str(), ...);
That being said, you are constructing a std::wstring with the individual char values of a std::string as-is. That will work without data loss only for ASCII characters <= 127, which have the same numeric values in both ASCII and Unicode. For non-ASCII characters, you need to actually convert the char data to Unicode, such as with MultiByteToWideChar() (or equivilent), eg:
std::wstring to_wstring(const std::string &s)
{
std::wstring wide_string;
// NOTE: be sure to specify the correct codepage that the
// str::string data is actually encoded in...
int len = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, s.c_str(), s.size(), NULL, 0);
if (len > 0) {
wide_string.resize(len);
MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, s.c_str(), s.size(), &wide_string[0], len);
}
return wide_string;
}
URLDownloadToFileW(..., to_wstring(y).c_str(), ...);
That being said, there is a simpler solution. If the std::string is encoded in the user's default locale, you can simply call URLDownloadToFileA() instead, passing it the original std::string as-is, and let the OS handle the conversion for you, eg:
URLDownloadToFileA(..., y.c_str(), ...);
There is a cross-platform solution. You can use std::mbtowc.
std::wstring convert_mb_to_wc(std::string s) {
std::wstring out;
std::mbtowc(nullptr, 0, 0);
int offset;
size_t index = 0;
for (wchar_t wc;
(offset = std::mbtowc(&wc, &s[index], s.size() - index)) > 0;
index += offset) {
out.push_back(wc);
}
return out;
}
Adapted from an example on cppreference.com at https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/string/multibyte/mbtowc .

c++ can't convert string to wstring

I would like to convert a string variable to wstring due to some german characters that cause problem when doing a substr over the variable. The start position is falsified when any these special characters is present before it. (For instance: for "ä" size() returns 2 instead of 1)
I know that the following conversion works:
wstring ws = L"ä";
Since, I am trying to convert a variable, I would like to know if there is an alternative way for it such as
wstring wstr = L"%s"+str //this is syntaxically wrong, but wanted sth alike
Beside that, I have already tried the following example to convert string to wstring:
string foo("ä");
wstring_convert<codecvt_utf8<wchar_t>> converter;
wstring wfoo = converter.from_bytes(foo.data());
cout << foo.size() << endl;
cout << wfoo.size() << endl;
, but I get errors like
‘wstring_convert’ was not declared in this scope
I am using ubuntu 14.04 and my main.cpp is compiled with cmake. Thanks for your help!
The solution from "hahakubile" worked for me:
std::wstring s2ws(const std::string& s) {
std::string curLocale = setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
const char* _Source = s.c_str();
size_t _Dsize = mbstowcs(NULL, _Source, 0) + 1;
wchar_t *_Dest = new wchar_t[_Dsize];
wmemset(_Dest, 0, _Dsize);
mbstowcs(_Dest,_Source,_Dsize);
std::wstring result = _Dest;
delete []_Dest;
setlocale(LC_ALL, curLocale.c_str());
return result;
}
But the return value is not 100% correct:
string s = "101446012MaßnStörfall PAt #Maßnahme Störfall 00810000100121000102000020100000000000000";
wstring ws2 = s2ws(s);
cout << ws2.size() << endl; // returns 110 which is correct
wcout << ws2.substr(29,40) << endl; // returns #Ma�nahme St�rfall with symbols
I am wondering why it replaced german characters with symbols.
Thanks again!
If you are using Windows/Visual Studio and need to convert a string to wstring you should use:
#include <AtlBase.h>
#include <atlconv.h>
...
string s = "some string";
CA2W ca2w(s.c_str());
wstring w = ca2w;
printf("%s = %ls", s.c_str(), w.c_str());
Same procedure for converting a wstring to string (sometimes you will need to specify a codepage):
#include <AtlBase.h>
#include <atlconv.h>
...
wstring w = L"some wstring";
CW2A cw2a(w.c_str());
string s = cw2a;
printf("%s = %ls", s.c_str(), w.c_str());
You could specify a codepage and even UTF8 (that's pretty nice when working with JNI/Java).
CA2W ca2w(str, CP_UTF8);
If you want to know more about codepages there is an interesting article on Joel on Software: The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets.
These CA2W (Convert Ansi to Wide=unicode) macros are part of ATL and MFC String Conversion Macros, samples included.
Sometimes you will need to disable the security warning #4995', I don't know of other workaround (to me it happen when I compiled for WindowsXp in VS2012).
#pragma warning(push)
#pragma warning(disable: 4995)
#include <AtlBase.h>
#include <atlconv.h>
#pragma warning(pop)
Edit:
Well, according to this article the article by Joel appears to be: "while entertaining, it is pretty light on actual technical details". Article: What Every Programmer Absolutely, Positively Needs To Know About Encoding And Character Sets To Work With Text.
The main point is that
string foo("ä")
Is already an error. Start from here and read all answers. And beware, one is very wrong :)

libxml2 xmlChar * to std::wstring

libxml2 seems to store all its strings in UTF-8, as xmlChar *.
/**
* xmlChar:
*
* This is a basic byte in an UTF-8 encoded string.
* It's unsigned allowing to pinpoint case where char * are assigned
* to xmlChar * (possibly making serialization back impossible).
*/
typedef unsigned char xmlChar;
As libxml2 is a C library, there's no provided routines to get an std::wstring out of an xmlChar *. I'm wondering whether the prudent way to convert xmlChar * to a std::wstring in C++11 is to use the mbstowcs C function, via something like this (work in progress):
std::wstring xmlCharToWideString(const xmlChar *xmlString) {
if(!xmlString){abort();} //provided string was null
int charLength = xmlStrlen(xmlString); //excludes null terminator
wchar_t *wideBuffer = new wchar_t[charLength];
size_t wcharLength = mbstowcs(wideBuffer, (const char *)xmlString, charLength);
if(wcharLength == (size_t)(-1)){abort();} //mbstowcs failed
std::wstring wideString(wideBuffer, wcharLength);
delete[] wideBuffer;
return wideString;
}
Edit: Just an FYI, I'm very aware of what xmlStrlen returns; it's the number of xmlChar used to store the string; I know it's not the number of characters but rather the number of unsigned char. It would have been less confusing if I had named it byteLength, but I thought it would have been clearer as I have both charLength and wcharLength. As for the correctness of the code, the wideBuffer will be larger or equal to the required size to hold the buffer, always (I believe). As characters that require more space than wide_t will be truncated (I think).
xmlStrlen() returns the number of UTF-8 encoded codeunits in the xmlChar* string. That is not going to be the same number of wchar_t encoded codeunits needed when the data is converted, so do not use xmlStrlen() to allocate the size of your wchar_t string. You need to call std::mbtowc() once to get the correct length, then allocate the memory, and call mbtowc() again to fill the memory. You will also have to use std::setlocale() to tell mbtowc() to use UTF-8 (messing with the locale may not be a good idea, especially if multiple threads are involved). For example:
std::wstring xmlCharToWideString(const xmlChar *xmlString)
{
if (!xmlString) { abort(); } //provided string was null
std::wstring wideString;
int charLength = xmlStrlen(xmlString);
if (charLength > 0)
{
char *origLocale = setlocale(LC_CTYPE, NULL);
setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "en_US.UTF-8");
size_t wcharLength = mbtowc(NULL, (const char*) xmlString, charLength); //excludes null terminator
if (wcharLength != (size_t)(-1))
{
wideString.resize(wcharLength);
mbtowc(&wideString[0], (const char*) xmlString, charLength);
}
setlocale(LC_CTYPE, origLocale);
if (wcharLength == (size_t)(-1)) { abort(); } //mbstowcs failed
}
return wideString;
}
A better option, since you mention C++11, is to use std::codecvt_utf8 with std::wstring_convert instead so you do not have to deal with locales:
std::wstring xmlCharToWideString(const xmlChar *xmlString)
{
if (!xmlString) { abort(); } //provided string was null
try
{
std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8<wchar_t>, wchar_t> conv;
return conv.from_bytes((const char*)xmlString);
}
catch(const std::range_error& e)
{
abort(); //wstring_convert failed
}
}
An alternative option is to use an actual Unicode library, such as ICU or ICONV, to handle Unicode conversions.
There are some problems in this code, besides the fact that you are using wchar_t and std::wstring which is a bad idea unless you're making calls to the Windows API.
xmlStrlen() does not do what you think it does. It counts the number of UTF-8 code units (a.k.a. bytes) in a string. It does not count the number of characters. This is all stuff in the documentation.
Counting characters will not portably give you the correct size for a wchar_t array anyway. So not only does xmlStrlen() not do what you think it does, what you wanted isn't the right thing either. The problem is that the encoding of wchar_t varies from platform to platform, making it 100% useless for portable code.
The mbtowcs() function is locale-dependent. It only converts from UTF-8 if the locale is a UTF-8 locale!
This code will leak memory if the std::wstring constructor throws an exception.
My recommendations:
Use UTF-8 if at all possible. The wchar_t rabbit hole is a lot of extra work for no benefit (except the ability to make Windows API calls).
If you need UTF-32, then use std::u32string. Remember that wstring has a platform-dependent encoding: it could be a variable-length encoding (Windows) or fixed-length (Linux, OS X).
If you absolutely must have wchar_t, then chances are good that you are on Windows. Here is how you do it on Windows:
std::wstring utf8_to_wstring(const char *utf8)
{
size_t utf8len = std::strlen(utf8);
int wclen = MultiByteToWideChar(
CP_UTF8, 0, utf8, utf8len, NULL, 0);
wchar_t *wc = NULL;
try {
wc = new wchar_t[wclen];
MultiByteToWideChar(
CP_UTF8, 0, utf8, utf8len, wc, wclen);
std::wstring wstr(wc, wclen);
delete[] wc;
wc = NULL;
return wstr;
} catch (std::exception &) {
if (wc)
delete[] wc;
}
}
If you absolutely must have wchar_t and you are not on Windows, use iconv() (see man 3 iconv, man 3 iconv_open and man 3 iconv_close for the manual). You can specify "WCHAR_T" as one of the encodings for iconv().
Remember: You probably don't want wchar_t or std::wstring. What wchar_t does portably isn't useful, and making it useful isn't portable. C'est la vie.
add
#include <boost/locale.hpp>
convert xmlChar* to string
std::string strGbk((char*)node);
convert string to wstring
std::string strGbk = "china powerful forever";
std::wstring wstr = boost::locale::conv::to_utf<wchar_t>(strGbk, "gbk");
std::cout << strGbk << std::endl;
std::wcout << wstr. << std::endl;
it works for me,good lucks.

Compare std::wstring and std::string

How can I compare a wstring, such as L"Hello", to a string? If I need to have the same type, how can I convert them into the same type?
Since you asked, here's my standard conversion functions from string to wide string, implemented using C++ std::string and std::wstring classes.
First off, make sure to start your program with set_locale:
#include <clocale>
int main()
{
std::setlocale(LC_CTYPE, ""); // before any string operations
}
Now for the functions. First off, getting a wide string from a narrow string:
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <cassert>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <cwchar>
#include <cerrno>
// Dummy overload
std::wstring get_wstring(const std::wstring & s)
{
return s;
}
// Real worker
std::wstring get_wstring(const std::string & s)
{
const char * cs = s.c_str();
const size_t wn = std::mbsrtowcs(NULL, &cs, 0, NULL);
if (wn == size_t(-1))
{
std::cout << "Error in mbsrtowcs(): " << errno << std::endl;
return L"";
}
std::vector<wchar_t> buf(wn + 1);
const size_t wn_again = std::mbsrtowcs(buf.data(), &cs, wn + 1, NULL);
if (wn_again == size_t(-1))
{
std::cout << "Error in mbsrtowcs(): " << errno << std::endl;
return L"";
}
assert(cs == NULL); // successful conversion
return std::wstring(buf.data(), wn);
}
And going back, making a narrow string from a wide string. I call the narrow string "locale string", because it is in a platform-dependent encoding depending on the current locale:
// Dummy
std::string get_locale_string(const std::string & s)
{
return s;
}
// Real worker
std::string get_locale_string(const std::wstring & s)
{
const wchar_t * cs = s.c_str();
const size_t wn = std::wcsrtombs(NULL, &cs, 0, NULL);
if (wn == size_t(-1))
{
std::cout << "Error in wcsrtombs(): " << errno << std::endl;
return "";
}
std::vector<char> buf(wn + 1);
const size_t wn_again = std::wcsrtombs(buf.data(), &cs, wn + 1, NULL);
if (wn_again == size_t(-1))
{
std::cout << "Error in wcsrtombs(): " << errno << std::endl;
return "";
}
assert(cs == NULL); // successful conversion
return std::string(buf.data(), wn);
}
Some notes:
If you don't have std::vector::data(), you can say &buf[0] instead.
I've found that the r-style conversion functions mbsrtowcs and wcsrtombs don't work properly on Windows. There, you can use the mbstowcs and wcstombs instead: mbstowcs(buf.data(), cs, wn + 1);, wcstombs(buf.data(), cs, wn + 1);
In response to your question, if you want to compare two strings, you can convert both of them to wide string and then compare those. If you are reading a file from disk which has a known encoding, you should use iconv() to convert the file from your known encoding to WCHAR and then compare with the wide string.
Beware, though, that complex Unicode text may have multiple different representations as code point sequences which you may want to consider equal. If that is a possibility, you need to use a higher-level Unicode processing library (such as ICU) and normalize your strings to some common, comparable form.
You should convert the char string to a wchar_t string using mbstowcs, and then compare the resulting strings. Notice that mbstowcs works on char */wchar *, so you'll probably need to do something like this:
std::wstring StringToWstring(const std::string & source)
{
std::wstring target(source.size()+1, L' ');
std::size_t newLength=std::mbstowcs(&target[0], source.c_str(), target.size());
target.resize(newLength);
return target;
}
I'm not entirely sure that that usage of &target[0] is entirely standard-conforming, if someone has a good answer to that please tell me in the comments. Also, there's an implicit assumption that the converted string won't be longer (in number of wchar_ts) than the number of chars of the original string - a logical assumption that still I'm not sure it's covered by the standard.
On the other hand, it seems that there's no way to ask to mbstowcs the size of the needed buffer, so either you go this way, or go with (better done and better defined) code from Unicode libraries (be it Windows APIs or libraries like iconv).
Still, keep in mind that comparing Unicode strings without using special functions is slippery ground, two equivalent strings may be evaluated different when compared bitwise.
Long story short: this should work, and I think it's the maximum you can do with just the standard library, but it's a lot implementation-dependent in how Unicode is handled, and I wouldn't trust it a lot. In general, it's just better to stick with an encoding inside your application and avoid this kind of conversions unless absolutely necessary, and, if you are working with definite encodings, use APIs that are less implementation-dependent.
Think twice before doing this — you might not want to compare them in the first place. If you are sure you do and you are using Windows, then convert string to wstring with MultiByteToWideChar, then compare with CompareStringEx.
If you are not using Windows, then the analogous functions are mbstowcs and wcscmp. The standard wide character C++ functions are often not portable under Windows; for instance mbstowcs is deprecated.
The cross-platform way to work with Unicode is to use the ICU library.
Take care to use special functions for Unicode string comparison, don't do it manually. Two Unicode strings could have different characters, yet still be the same.
wstring ConvertToUnicode(const string & str)
{
UINT codePage = CP_ACP;
DWORD flags = 0;
int resultSize = MultiByteToWideChar
( codePage // CodePage
, flags // dwFlags
, str.c_str() // lpMultiByteStr
, str.length() // cbMultiByte
, NULL // lpWideCharStr
, 0 // cchWideChar
);
vector<wchar_t> result(resultSize + 1);
MultiByteToWideChar
( codePage // CodePage
, flags // dwFlags
, str.c_str() // lpMultiByteStr
, str.length() // cbMultiByte
, &result[0] // lpWideCharStr
, resultSize // cchWideChar
);
return &result[0];
}

C++ Convert string (or char*) to wstring (or wchar_t*)

string s = "おはよう";
wstring ws = FUNCTION(s, ws);
How would i assign the contents of s to ws?
Searched google and used some techniques but they can't assign the exact content. The content is distorted.
Assuming that the input string in your example (おはよう) is a UTF-8 encoded (which it isn't, by the looks of it, but let's assume it is for the sake of this explanation :-)) representation of a Unicode string of your interest, then your problem can be fully solved with the standard library (C++11 and newer) alone.
The TL;DR version:
#include <locale>
#include <codecvt>
#include <string>
std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8_utf16<wchar_t>> converter;
std::string narrow = converter.to_bytes(wide_utf16_source_string);
std::wstring wide = converter.from_bytes(narrow_utf8_source_string);
Longer online compilable and runnable example:
(They all show the same example. There are just many for redundancy...)
http://ideone.com/KA1oty
http://ide.geeksforgeeks.org/5pRLSh
http://rextester.com/DIJZK52174
Note (old):
As pointed out in the comments and explained in https://stackoverflow.com/a/17106065/6345 there are cases when using the standard library to convert between UTF-8 and UTF-16 might give unexpected differences in the results on different platforms. For a better conversion, consider std::codecvt_utf8 as described on http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/locale/codecvt_utf8
Note (new):
Since the codecvt header is deprecated in C++17, some worry about the solution presented in this answer were raised. However, the C++ standards committee added an important statement in http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2017/p0618r0.html saying
this library component should be retired to Annex D, along side , until a suitable replacement is standardized.
So in the foreseeable future, the codecvt solution in this answer is safe and portable.
int StringToWString(std::wstring &ws, const std::string &s)
{
std::wstring wsTmp(s.begin(), s.end());
ws = wsTmp;
return 0;
}
Your question is underspecified. Strictly, that example is a syntax error. However, std::mbstowcs is probably what you're looking for.
It is a C-library function and operates on buffers, but here's an easy-to-use idiom, courtesy of Mooing Duck:
std::wstring ws(s.size(), L' '); // Overestimate number of code points.
ws.resize(std::mbstowcs(&ws[0], s.c_str(), s.size())); // Shrink to fit.
If you are using Windows/Visual Studio and need to convert a string to wstring you could use:
#include <AtlBase.h>
#include <atlconv.h>
...
string s = "some string";
CA2W ca2w(s.c_str());
wstring w = ca2w;
printf("%s = %ls", s.c_str(), w.c_str());
Same procedure for converting a wstring to string (sometimes you will need to specify a codepage):
#include <AtlBase.h>
#include <atlconv.h>
...
wstring w = L"some wstring";
CW2A cw2a(w.c_str());
string s = cw2a;
printf("%s = %ls", s.c_str(), w.c_str());
You could specify a codepage and even UTF8 (that's pretty nice when working with JNI/Java). A standard way of converting a std::wstring to utf8 std::string is showed in this answer.
//
// using ATL
CA2W ca2w(str, CP_UTF8);
//
// or the standard way taken from the answer above
#include <codecvt>
#include <string>
// convert UTF-8 string to wstring
std::wstring utf8_to_wstring (const std::string& str) {
std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8<wchar_t>> myconv;
return myconv.from_bytes(str);
}
// convert wstring to UTF-8 string
std::string wstring_to_utf8 (const std::wstring& str) {
std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8<wchar_t>> myconv;
return myconv.to_bytes(str);
}
If you want to know more about codepages there is an interesting article on Joel on Software: The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets.
These CA2W (Convert Ansi to Wide=unicode) macros are part of ATL and MFC String Conversion Macros, samples included.
Sometimes you will need to disable the security warning #4995', I don't know of other workaround (to me it happen when I compiled for WindowsXp in VS2012).
#pragma warning(push)
#pragma warning(disable: 4995)
#include <AtlBase.h>
#include <atlconv.h>
#pragma warning(pop)
Edit:
Well, according to this article the article by Joel appears to be: "while entertaining, it is pretty light on actual technical details". Article: What Every Programmer Absolutely, Positively Needs To Know About Encoding And Character Sets To Work With Text.
Windows API only, pre C++11 implementation, in case someone needs it:
#include <stdexcept>
#include <vector>
#include <windows.h>
using std::runtime_error;
using std::string;
using std::vector;
using std::wstring;
wstring utf8toUtf16(const string & str)
{
if (str.empty())
return wstring();
size_t charsNeeded = ::MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0,
str.data(), (int)str.size(), NULL, 0);
if (charsNeeded == 0)
throw runtime_error("Failed converting UTF-8 string to UTF-16");
vector<wchar_t> buffer(charsNeeded);
int charsConverted = ::MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0,
str.data(), (int)str.size(), &buffer[0], buffer.size());
if (charsConverted == 0)
throw runtime_error("Failed converting UTF-8 string to UTF-16");
return wstring(&buffer[0], charsConverted);
}
Here's a way to combining string, wstring and mixed string constants to wstring. Use the wstringstream class.
This does NOT work for multi-byte character encodings. This is just a dumb way of throwing away type safety and expanding 7 bit characters from std::string into the lower 7 bits of each character of std:wstring. This is only useful if you have a 7-bit ASCII strings and you need to call an API that requires wide strings.
#include <sstream>
std::string narrow = "narrow";
std::wstring wide = L"wide";
std::wstringstream cls;
cls << " abc " << narrow.c_str() << L" def " << wide.c_str();
std::wstring total= cls.str();
From char* to wstring:
char* str = "hello worlddd";
wstring wstr (str, str+strlen(str));
From string to wstring:
string str = "hello worlddd";
wstring wstr (str.begin(), str.end());
Note this only works well if the string being converted contains only ASCII characters.
This variant of it is my favourite in real life. It converts the input, if it is valid UTF-8, to the respective wstring. If the input is corrupted, the wstring is constructed out of the single bytes. This is extremely helpful if you cannot really be sure about the quality of your input data.
std::wstring convert(const std::string& input)
{
try
{
std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8_utf16<wchar_t>> converter;
return converter.from_bytes(input);
}
catch(std::range_error& e)
{
size_t length = input.length();
std::wstring result;
result.reserve(length);
for(size_t i = 0; i < length; i++)
{
result.push_back(input[i] & 0xFF);
}
return result;
}
}
using Boost.Locale:
ws = boost::locale::conv::utf_to_utf<wchar_t>(s);
You can use boost path or std path; which is a lot more easier.
boost path is easier for cross-platform application
#include <boost/filesystem/path.hpp>
namespace fs = boost::filesystem;
//s to w
std::string s = "xxx";
auto w = fs::path(s).wstring();
//w to s
std::wstring w = L"xxx";
auto s = fs::path(w).string();
if you like to use std:
#include <filesystem>
namespace fs = std::filesystem;
//The same
c++ older version
#include <experimental/filesystem>
namespace fs = std::experimental::filesystem;
//The same
The code within still implement a converter which you dont have to unravel the detail.
For me the most uncomplicated option without big overhead is:
Include:
#include <atlbase.h>
#include <atlconv.h>
Convert:
char* whatever = "test1234";
std::wstring lwhatever = std::wstring(CA2W(std::string(whatever).c_str()));
If needed:
lwhatever.c_str();
String to wstring
std::wstring Str2Wstr(const std::string& str)
{
int size_needed = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, &str[0], (int)str.size(), NULL, 0);
std::wstring wstrTo(size_needed, 0);
MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, &str[0], (int)str.size(), &wstrTo[0], size_needed);
return wstrTo;
}
wstring to String
std::string Wstr2Str(const std::wstring& wstr)
{
typedef std::codecvt_utf8<wchar_t> convert_typeX;
std::wstring_convert<convert_typeX, wchar_t> converterX;
return converterX.to_bytes(wstr);
}
If you have QT and if you are lazy to implement a function and stuff you can use
std::string str;
QString(str).toStdWString()
Here is my super basic solution that might not work for everyone. But would work for a lot of people.
It requires usage of the Guideline Support Library.
Which is a pretty official C++ library that was designed by many C++ committee authors:
https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines
https://github.com/Microsoft/GSL
std::string to_string(std::wstring const & wStr)
{
std::string temp = {};
for (wchar_t const & wCh : wStr)
{
// If the string can't be converted gsl::narrow will throw
temp.push_back(gsl::narrow<char>(wCh));
}
return temp;
}
All my function does is allow the conversion if possible. Otherwise throw an exception.
Via the usage of gsl::narrow (https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines/blob/master/CppCoreGuidelines.md#es49-if-you-must-use-a-cast-use-a-named-cast)
method s2ws works well. Hope helps.
std::wstring s2ws(const std::string& s) {
std::string curLocale = setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
const char* _Source = s.c_str();
size_t _Dsize = mbstowcs(NULL, _Source, 0) + 1;
wchar_t *_Dest = new wchar_t[_Dsize];
wmemset(_Dest, 0, _Dsize);
mbstowcs(_Dest,_Source,_Dsize);
std::wstring result = _Dest;
delete []_Dest;
setlocale(LC_ALL, curLocale.c_str());
return result;
}
Based upon my own testing (On windows 8, vs2010) mbstowcs can actually damage original string, it works only with ANSI code page. If MultiByteToWideChar/WideCharToMultiByte can also cause string corruption - but they tends to replace characters which they don't know with '?' question marks, but mbstowcs tends to stop when it encounters unknown character and cut string at that very point. (I have tested Vietnamese characters on finnish windows).
So prefer Multi*-windows api function over analogue ansi C functions.
Also what I've noticed shortest way to encode string from one codepage to another is not use MultiByteToWideChar/WideCharToMultiByte api function calls but their analogue ATL macros: W2A / A2W.
So analogue function as mentioned above would sounds like:
wstring utf8toUtf16(const string & str)
{
USES_CONVERSION;
_acp = CP_UTF8;
return A2W( str.c_str() );
}
_acp is declared in USES_CONVERSION macro.
Or also function which I often miss when performing old data conversion to new one:
string ansi2utf8( const string& s )
{
USES_CONVERSION;
_acp = CP_ACP;
wchar_t* pw = A2W( s.c_str() );
_acp = CP_UTF8;
return W2A( pw );
}
But please notice that those macro's use heavily stack - don't use for loops or recursive loops for same function - after using W2A or A2W macro - better to return ASAP, so stack will be freed from temporary conversion.
std::string -> wchar_t[] with safe mbstowcs_s function:
auto ws = std::make_unique<wchar_t[]>(s.size() + 1);
mbstowcs_s(nullptr, ws.get(), s.size() + 1, s.c_str(), s.size());
This is from my sample code
use this code to convert your string to wstring
std::wstring string2wString(const std::string& s){
int len;
int slength = (int)s.length() + 1;
len = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, s.c_str(), slength, 0, 0);
wchar_t* buf = new wchar_t[len];
MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, s.c_str(), slength, buf, len);
std::wstring r(buf);
delete[] buf;
return r;
}
int main(){
std::wstring str="your string";
std::wstring wStr=string2wString(str);
return 0;
}
string s = "おはよう"; is an error.
You should use wstring directly:
wstring ws = L"おはよう";