11

As I understand it, Windows #defines TCHAR as the correct character type for your application based on the build - so it is wchar_t in UNICODE builds and char otherwise.

Because of this I wondered if std::basic_string<TCHAR> would be preferable to std::wstring, since the first would theoretically match the character type of the application, whereas the second would always be wide.

So my question is essentially: Would std::basic_string<TCHAR> be preferable to std::wstring on Windows? And, would there be any caveats (i.e. unexpected behavior or side effects) to using std::basic_string<TCHAR>? Or, should I just use std::wstring on Windows and forget about it?

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3 Answers 3

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17

I believe the time when it was advisable to release non-unicode versions of your application (to support Win95, or to save a KB or two) is long past: nowadays the underlying Windows system you'll support are going to be unicode-based (so using char-based system interfaces will actually complicate the code by interposing a shim layer from the library) and it's doubtful whether you'd save any space at all. Go std::wstring, young man!-)

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2 Comments

+1 because the raw reason: On Windows, Unicode goes through wchar_t. Using char for characters on a windows-only code is beyond dumbness. I know. I work with a VERY LARGE application using char with codepages and with localized strings for 10 languages... Eew...
+1 Preach on! I used to take so much heat for this opinion that it's wonderful to hear someone else think the same way.
10

I have done this on very large projects and it works great:

namespace std
{
#ifdef _UNICODE
    typedef wstring tstring;
#else
    typedef string tstring;
#endif
}

You can use wstring everywhere instead though if you'd like, if you do not need to ever compile using a multi-byte character string. I don't think you need to ever support multi byte character strings though in any modern application.

Note: The std namespace is supposed to be off limits, but I have not had any problems with the above method for several years.

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5 Comments

Likewise, although I possibly didn't put it in the std namespace at the time.
Technically, it is not legal to add it to the std namespace. :) I doubt many compilers will actually complain about it, but the std namespace is technically off limits. The only thing you're allowed to add to it is specializations of existing templates.
MSVC does not complain about a couple of things it should. Namely the use (or lack of) of the typename keyword.
+1. I use a similar construct to produce Unicode-enabled code that will work both on Windows (wchar_t) and Linux (char). I understand the std namespace is off-limits, and thus, agree to pay the price if my own std::tstring is the cause of problems in my code. I have yet to see a problem. Now, for the current question, I would advise, for Windows-only code, to keep using std::wstring.
Uhm, why not just do typedef std::basic_string<TCHAR> tstring?
3

One thing to keep in mind. If you decide to use std::wstring all the way in your program, you might still need to use std::string if you are communicating with other systems using UTF8.

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1 Comment

If you're mixing wide and UTF8 strings, you can't rely on TCHAR anyway.

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