What exactly is the L prefix in C++?

c++ string widestring
user965369 picture user965369 · Oct 26, 2012 · Viewed 33.9k times · Source

I understand what it does: specifies a string literal as a const wchar_t * (wide character string) instead of const char * (plain old characters), but how is it actually defined?

Is it a macro of some sort? Is it an operator for GCC compilers? What is it?

Answer

Kerrek SB picture Kerrek SB · Oct 26, 2012

The literal prefixes are a part of the core language, much like the suffixes:

'a'    // type: char
L'a'   // type: wchar_t

"a"    // type: char[2]
L"a"   // type: wchar_t[2]
U"a"   // type: char32_t[2]

1      // type: int
1U     // type: unsigned int

0.5    // type: double
0.5f   // type: float
0.5L   // type: long double

Note that wchar_t has nothing to do with Unicode. Here is an extended rant of mine on the topic.

Related questions

Easiest way to convert int to string in C++

What is the easiest way to convert from int to equivalent string in C++. I am aware of two methods. Is there any easier way? (1) int a = 10; char *intStr = itoa(a); string str = string(intStr); (2) int a = 10; stringstream ss; ss &…

Read More
How do I iterate over the words of a string?

I'm trying to iterate over the words of a string. The string can be assumed to be composed of words separated by whitespace. Note that I'm not interested in C string functions or that kind of character manipulation/access. Also, …

Read More
How can I convert a std::string to int?

Just have a quick question. I've looked around the internet quite a bit and I've found a few solutions but none of them have worked yet. Looking at converting a string to an int and I don't mean ASCII codes. …

Read More