How to convert a TCHAR array to std::string?

Question

How do I convert a TCHAR array to std::string (not to std::basic_string)?

Answer 1

TCHAR is just a typedef that, depending on your compilation configuration, either defaults to char or wchar_t.

Standard Template Library supports both ASCII (with std::string) and wide character sets (with std::wstring). All you need to do is to typedef String as either std::string or std::wstring depending on your compilation configuration. To maintain flexibility you can use the following code:

#ifndef UNICODE  
  typedef std::string String; 
#else
  typedef std::wstring String; 
#endif

Now you may use String in your code and let the compiler handle the nasty parts. String will now have constructors that lets you convert TCHAR to std::string or std::wstring.

Answer 2

TCHAR is either char or wchar_t, so a

typedef basic_string<TCHAR>   tstring;

is one way of doing it.

The other is to skip char altogether and just use std::wstring.

Answer 3

TCHAR type is char or wchar_t, depending on your project settings.

 #ifdef UNICODE
     // TCHAR type is wchar_t
 #else
     // TCHAR type is char
 #endif

So if you must use std::string instead of std::wstring, you should use a converter function. I may use wcstombs or WideCharToMultiByte.

TCHAR * text;

#ifdef UNICODE
    /*/
    // Simple C
    const size_t size = ( wcslen(text) + 1 ) * sizeof(wchar_t);
    wcstombs(&buffer[0], text, size);
    std::vector<char> buffer(size);
    /*/
    // Windows API (I would use this)
    std::vector<char> buffer;
    int size = WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, text, -1, NULL, 0, NULL, NULL);
    if (size > 0) {
        buffer.resize(size);
        WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, text, -1, static_cast<BYTE*>(&buffer[0]), buffer.size(), NULL, NULL);
    }
    else {
        // Error handling
    }
    //*/
    std::string string(&buffer[0]);
#else
    std::string string(text);
#endif