How to change console program for unicode support in windows? - c

Question

The following program can be compiled using msvc or mingw. However, the mingw version cannot display unicode correctly. Why? How can I fix that?
Code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <io.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
int wmain(void)
{
_setmode(_fileno(stdout), _O_U16TEXT);
_putws(L"哈哈哈");
system("pause");
return 0;
}
Mingw64 Compile Command:
i686-w64-mingw32-gcc -mconsole -municode play.c
MSVC Compiled:
Mingw Compiled:
Edit:
After some testing, the problem seems not causing by mingw. If I run the program directly by double clicking the app. The unicode string cannot be displayed correct either. The code page however, is the same, 437.
It turns out the problem is related to console font instead of the compiler. See the following demo code for changing console font.

Answer 1

This is happening because of missing #define UNICODE & #define _UNICODE . You should try adding it along with other headers. The _UNICODE symbol is used with headers such as tchar.h to direct standard C functions such as printf() and fopen() to the Unicode versions.
Please Note - The -municode option is still required when linking if Unicode mode is used.

Answer 2

After doing some research, it turns out the default console font does not support chainese glyphs. One can change the console font by using SetCurrentConsoleFontEx function.
Demo Code:
#ifdef _MSC_VER
#define _CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS
#endif
#include <stdio.h>
#include <io.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <windows.h>
#define FF_SIMHEI 54
int main(int argc, char const *argv[])
{
CONSOLE_FONT_INFOEX cfi = {0};
cfi.cbSize = sizeof(CONSOLE_FONT_INFOEX);
cfi.nFont = 0;
cfi.dwFontSize.X = 8;
cfi.dwFontSize.Y = 16;
cfi.FontFamily = FF_SIMHEI;
cfi.FontWeight = FW_NORMAL;
wcscpy(cfi.FaceName, L"SimHei");
SetCurrentConsoleFontEx(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), FALSE, &cfi);
/* UTF-8 String */
SetConsoleOutputCP(CP_UTF8); /* Thanks for Eryk Sun's notice: Remove this line if you are using windows 7 or 8 */
puts(u8"UTF-8你好");
/* UTF-16 String */
_setmode(_fileno(stdout), _O_U16TEXT);
_putws(L"UTF-16你好");
system("pause");
return 0;
}