What is TCHAR and how does it differ from WCHAR?

Question

This question should've had an answer nowadays here, but there is nothing explaining what exactly TCHAR is on stackoverflow (all I found is an explanation of the difference between TCHAR and _TCHAR).

All I know is that TCHAR and _TCHAR are considered to be the same and on some platforms TCHAR may be the same as WCHAR. But all that is just a presumption.

What is TCHAR and how does it differ from WCHAR?

last windows without unicode suppot was millenium. since then all this is a waste stuff — Алексей Неудачин, Oct 30 '20 at 11:23
@Kaiyaha I meant the [tags in stackoverflow](https://stackoverflow.com/help/tagging). Where did you se `tchar` in lowercase? — Jabberwocky, Oct 30 '20 at 11:39
@Kaiyaha It is all fairly well explained in the reference documentation under [Working with Strings](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/learnwin32/working-with-strings). — dxiv, Oct 31 '20 at 04:27

ikegami · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-30T11:11:24.383

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TCHAR is either char or wchar_t depending on whether UNICODE is defined or not.

Using TCHAR and TCHAR-based types allow a library to work with programs that define UNICODE and programs that don't alike.

edited Oct 30 '20 at 11:11

answered Oct 30 '20 at 11:09

ikegami

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So if I declare `tchar`, I provide more portability for my code, do I? – Kaiyaha Oct 30 '20 at 11:10
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Yes, if you use `TCHAR` and `TCHAR`-based types, it's more portable. I've added something to that effect to my answer. – ikegami Oct 30 '20 at 11:12

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 30 '20 at 11:08

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The TCHAR can be either a char or WCHAR based on the platform, and the WCHAR will always be a 16-bit Unicode character, wchar_t.

answered Oct 30 '20 at 11:08

User

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Will I have portable code if I specify `tchar` instead of `char`? – Kaiyaha Oct 30 '20 at 11:09
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@Kaiyaha no. Just avoid all those TCHAR and wchar_t and use UTF-8 everywhere. It's possible in Windows right now: [What is the Windows equivalent for en_US.UTF-8 locale?](https://stackoverflow.com/a/63454192/995714) – phuclv Oct 30 '20 at 12:07

What is TCHAR and how does it differ from WCHAR?

2 Answers2