CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++c++-cliwstring
Roee Gavirel
Roee Gavirel

Reputation: 19443

How to initialize and print a std::wstring?

I had the code:

std::string st = "SomeText";
...
std::cout << st;

and that worked fine. But now my team wants to move to wstring. So I tried:

std::wstring st = "SomeText";
...
std::cout << st;

but this gave me a compilation error:

Error 1 error C2664: 'std::basic_string<_Elem,_Traits,_Ax>::basic_string(const std::basic_string<_Elem,_Traits,_Ax> &)' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'const char [8]' to 'const std::basic_string<_Elem,_Traits,_Ax> &' D:...\TestModule1.cpp 28 1 TestModule1

After searching the web I read that I should define it as:

std::wstring st = L"SomeText"; // Notice the "L"
...
std::cout << st;

this compiled but prints "0000000000012342" instead of "SomeText".

What am I doing wrong ?

Upvotes: 87

Views: 128477

Answers (5)

Nikita Jain
Nikita Jain

Reputation: 759

Another way to print wide string:

std::wstring str1 = L"SomeText";
std::wstring strr2(L"OtherText!");

printf("Wide String1- %ls \n", str1.c_str());
wprintf(L"Wide String2- %s \n", str2.c_str());
  • For printf: %s is narrow char string and %ls is wide char string.
  • For wprintf: %hs is narrow char string and %s is wide char string.

Upvotes: 4

Val
Val

Reputation: 22797

This answer apply to "C++/CLI" tag, and related Windows C++ console.

If you got multi-bytes characters in std::wstring, two more things need to be done to make it work:

  1. Include headers
    #include <io.h>
    #include <fcntl.h>
  2. Set stdout mode
    _setmode(_fileno(stdout), _O_U16TEXT)

Result: Multi-bytes console

Upvotes: 15

Hemant Metalia
Hemant Metalia

Reputation: 30648

try to use use std::wcout<<st it will fix your problem.

std::wstring st = "SomeText";
...
std::wcout << st;

Upvotes: 8

hmjd
hmjd

Reputation: 122001

Use std::wcout instead of std::cout.

Upvotes: 29

Bo Persson
Bo Persson

Reputation: 92291

To display a wstring you also need a wide version of cout - wcout.

std::wstring st = L"SomeText";
...
std::wcout << st;

Upvotes: 154

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