C++ Language/Std/Strings/Unicode

An 8-bit "Ascii character" has type  (its literal values are   and , its Standard Library functions are named like  , and its Win32 functions are named like  ).

A "wide-Unicode character" has type  (its literal values are   and , its Standard Library functions are named liked  , and its Win32 functions are named like  ).

Windows programmers use preprocessor macros in  to alias either   or   (these macros are controlled by Windows' build system). That same switching mechanism also controls the expansion of macros  and.

Additional information about Unicode