How Can I Output Unicode Characters to the Windows Console Using C ?

Outputting Unicode to Console in Windows using C

When attempting to display Unicode characters in the Windows console using cout, users may encounter distorted outputs due to Unicode being unsupported by default in cmd. To resolve this issue, various methods can be employed to enable Unicode support in the console environment.

One approach is utilizing the wide-characters output stream, std::wcout. By prepending an L before the Unicode string, it can be passed to std::wcout for proper display.

#include <iostream>

int main() {
    std::wcout << L"Hello World!" << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

However, it's important to note that while std::wcout addresses the problem of Unicode support, it does not ensure correct rendering in the console. To fully enable Unicode output, additional steps are necessary.

Firstly, the console must be configured to handle Unicode. This can be achieved by starting cmd with the /u argument, or by calling chcp 65001 to change the console's output format to UTF-16. Finally, a Unicode font, such as Lucida Console Unicode, can be set in the console for optimal rendering.

Alternatively, the _setmode(_fileno(stdout), _O_U16TEXT); function can be employed to enable Unicode support, as documented in this blog post. This approach requires the inclusion of fcntl.h and io.h libraries.

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