Using Wide Charachters in C++

The normal 'char' is 8 bits. There is a 'wide char' (wchar_t) that is generally 16 bits. The width of wchar_t is compiler specific and can be as small as 8 bits. It is therefore recommended that it should not be used for creating portable programs.

A simple example as follows:

//Program tested on Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 - Zahid Ghadialy
//Simple example of printing and comparing wide charachters
#include<iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
  wchar_t wide_charachter;
  wide_charachter = L'c';
  //using wcout for printing
  wcout<<"Wide Output of wide_charachter = "<<wide_charachter<<endl; 

  wstring wide_string; //wide string
  wide_string = L"A wide string";
  wcout<<"Wide Output of wide_string = "<<wide_string.c_str()<<endl;

  wstring new_wide_string(L"Another wide string");

  //comparing strings
  if(wcscmp(new_wide_string.c_str(),wide_string.c_str())== 0)
    cout<<"new_wide_string == wide_string"<<endl;
  else
    cout<<"new_wide_string != wide_string"<<endl;

  if(wcscmp(new_wide_string.c_str(),L"Another wide string")== 0)
    cout<<"new_wide_string == L\"Another wide string\""<<endl;

  return 0;
}

The output is as follows: