Cannot use wide strings in C/C++ Visual Studio, even though it works in CodeBlocks using MinGW

Question

I'm trying to use the Windows API in Visual Studio 2019. The problem is that when I'm trying to create a wide string, using something like this: L"Hello World!" , I get an error: 'L': identifier not found

Then, I tried using the TEXT() function, which, from what I understand, is supposed to convert a string to a wide string:

char test[1024]; /// contains some text
SetWindowText(DMG_LABEL, TEXT(test));

Here I get this error: 'Ltest': undeclared identifier

This worked on CodeBlocks using MinGW, so I don't see why it wouldn't work in VS. (Tested this in C++, but I'm pretty sure in C it's the same thing).

What exactly am I doing wrong?

EDIT: Thanks to @anastaciu, I didn't realize that I wasn't using wchar_t

Answer 1

This worked in Code::Blocks, because Code::Blocks sucks.

Code::Blocks still thinks, in 2021, that using codepage encoding were the proper default. As a result, the TEXT macro expands to nothing.

With an IDE like Visual Studio, that defaults to using Unicode, the TEXT macro expands to a token pasting sequence, slapping L to its argument, whatever that argument is. It is meant to be used with string literals, and in that case it does what one would expect. If you use it with a variable name, then, well, it still slaps an L in front of it.

So instead of test , the compiler now gets to see Ltest . It either uses the symbol named Ltest , or produces an error when it cannot find it.

What exactly am I doing wrong?

You are using a function-like preprocessor symbol, that's meant to be used with string literals, on something that isn't a string literal.

Answer 2

project properties->Advanced->Character Set = Use Unicode Character Set

or before adding <windows.h>

#if !defined(_UNICODE)
#define _UNICODE
#endif
#if !defined(UNICODE)
#define UNICODE
#endif

#include  <windows.h>