How can I get a Unicode character from a number?

Question

I'm new to C++, so sorry if this is obvious.

How can I get a character from a number? I have the following code:

for (int i = 0; i < 500; i++) {
    cout << i;
}

It's supposed to get the first 500 characters in the Unicode dictionary. I know that in javascript, it is String.fromCodePoint(i). What's the C++ equivalent?

Did you try (char)i? It won't do Unicode. C++ doesn't really know about Unicode. — Stack Exchange Broke The Law
– Stack Exchange Broke The Law, Commented Jul 23, 2020 at 15:35
@user253751 it's not true. C++ isn't entirely Unicode-friendly, but it does have Unicode char and string types (char8_t, char16_t, char32_t and their corresponding std::u8string, std::u32string and std::u32string) — phuclv
– phuclv, Commented Jul 23, 2020 at 15:53

phuclv · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-23 16:05:10Z

3

Use wchar_t instead

for (wchar_t i = 0; i < 500; i++) {
    wcout << i;
}

You can also use char16_t and char32_t if you're using C++11 or newer

However you still need a capable terminal and also need to set the correct codepage to get the expected output. On Linux it's quite straight forward but if you're using (an older) Windows it's much trickier. See Output unicode strings in Windows console app

edited Jul 23, 2020 at 16:05

answered Jul 23, 2020 at 15:45

phuclv

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5 Comments

Nicol Bolas Over a year ago

wchar_t is not Unicode, nor is it required to be interpreted as Unicode.

phuclv Over a year ago

@NicolBolas fair enough. But in practice it's UTF-16 on Windows and UTF-32 everywhere else. Besides char16_t and char32_t are required to be UTF-16 and UTF-32 respectively

Mark Ransom Over a year ago

Don't you want to use wcout instead?

phuclv Over a year ago

@MarkRansom yes, I forgot that. Thanks. Anyway I think std::cout on Windows has specializations for wchar_t

Remy Lebeau Over a year ago

@phuclv "I think std::cout on Windows has specializations for wchar_t" - no, it doesn't. That is why std::wcin/std::wcout/std::wcerr exist, to handle wchar_t. std::cin/std::cout/std::cerr handle char only.

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