How do I use alt code symbols in c++ visual studio

Question

I'm using visual studio for C++ and when using alt symbols it returns a ? . Why?

Answer 1

You can use

setlocale(LC_CTYPE, Encoding what you need );

Maybe not the best, but simple option to set console encoding output on what we want.

Answer 2

You've not set any supported encoding for your program and it's commonly not used in console, that's why you're getting the error. Although, this's yet possible.

You may take the help of fcntl.h library:

#include <iostream>
#include <fcntl.h>

int main(int) {
    _setmode(_fileno(stdout), _O_U16TEXT);
    std::wcout << L"Hello, \u2663!\n";

    return 0;
}

^{Note: You may find out the complete list of Unicode character set in Wikipedia .}

It'll print the symbols correctly:

Hello, ♣!

As an image example: