Automatically change between std::string and std::wstring according to unicode setting in MSVC++?

Question

I'm writing a DLL and want to be able to switch between the unicode and multibyte setting in MSVC++2010. For example, I use _T("string") and LPCTSTR and WIN32_FIND_DATA instead of the -W and -A versions and so on.

Now I want to have std::strings which change between std::string and std::wstring according to the unicode setting. Is that possible? Otherwise, this will probably end up getting extremely complicated.

possible duplicate of Is there an string equivalent to LPTSTR? — Kirill V. Lyadvinsky
– Kirill V. Lyadvinsky, Commented May 26, 2011 at 5:11

bdonlan · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-26 01:25:09Z

12

Why not do like the Win32 API does: Use wide characters internally, and provide a character-converting facade of DoSomethingA functions which simply convert their input to Unicode.

That said, you could define a tstring type like so:

#ifdef _UNICODE
typedef std::wstring tstring;
#else
typedef std::string tstring;
#endif

or possibly:

typedef std::basic_string<TCHAR> tstring;

answered May 26, 2011 at 1:25

bdonlan

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10 Comments

ildjarn Over a year ago

Note that you'll want to do the same for iostream types as well; e.g. instead of using std::fstream, make a typedef for std::basic_fstream<TCHAR> and use that instead.

ildjarn Over a year ago

@Felix : There's no such thing as a 'narrow' BSTR -- BSTR is, by definition, always UTF-16.

user439793 Over a year ago

BSTR is always 16 bit on Windows: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms221069.aspx

bdonlan Over a year ago

If you're using just a regular DLL export, you might be dealing with an ordinary string, not a BSTR - BSTRs are generally passed across COM interfaces. I haven't worked much with VB6 bindings, so I can't say for sure, but that might be the cause of your issues. In any case, BSTR will still be 16-bit even if you build for MBCS.

Philipp Over a year ago

If you declare a function in VB6 as taking a String argument, then VB6's UTF-16 string will be converted to an "ANSI" string during the call. Declare the argument as ByVal … As Long, and pass the StrPtr, then the pointer to the original UTF-16 data is passed.

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