How do I convert wchar_t* to string?

Question

I am new to C++.

And I am trying to convert wchar_t* to string.

I cannot use wstring in condition.

I have code below:

wchar_t *wide   = L"中文";
wstring ret     = wstring( wide );
string str2( ret.begin(), ret.end() );

But str2 returns some strange characters.

Where do I have to fix it?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/402283/stdwstring-vs-stdstring — Graham Griffiths, Mar 05 '14 at 11:29
That's because `str2` is of type `string` which holds `char`s; you're forcing `wchar_t` data on `char`, there'll be data loss. — legends2k, Mar 05 '14 at 11:29
@GrahamGriffiths Coz, I cannot find to concat string(which is produced before this line) and wstring. — Joshua Son, Mar 05 '14 at 11:35
you can create a wstring from a string in the same way you are creating a string from a wstring - although it is only safe / correct for single byte characters. Then you can concatenate your two wstrings — Graham Griffiths, Mar 05 '14 at 11:39

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 05 '14 at 11:42

3

You're trying to do it backwards. Instead of truncating wide characters to chars (which is very lossy), expand your chars to wide characters.

That is, transform your std::string into an std::wstring and concatenate the two std::wstrings.

answered Mar 05 '14 at 11:42

Lightness Races in Orbit

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 05 '14 at 11:49

I'm not sure what platform you're targeting. If you're on Windows platform you can call WideCharToMultiByte API function. Refer to MSDN for documentation.

If you're on Linux, I think you can use libiconv functions, try google.

Of course there is a port of libiconv for Windows.

In general this is a quite complex topic for a new beginners if you know nothing about character encodings - there are a lot of background knowledge to have to learn.

How do I convert wchar_t* to string?

2 Answers2