WriteConsole() weird characters?

Question

I use this snippet to create a console fron inside a dll. That dll gets loaded in a game.

CODE SNIPPET

The console window creates fine. But when i write stuff to it, i just get stuff like "???D??".

I know i have to use the printf() syntax. So i use

wprintf("%s", "test");

Any pointers?

Answer 1

Your encoding is wrong, as you are using wstring characters, but probably only have an ascii console. Make sure that you are using a unicode font in your console.

Answer 2

You're calling wprintf(), the "wide-character" version of the printf() routine. There's one nasty catch with these "wide-character" functions, in that the meaning of "%s" changes:

printf() - "%s" means argument is a normal string, "%S" means it's a wide-character string

wprintf() - "%s" means argument is a wide-character string, "%S" means it's a normal string

So your call to wprintf() is telling it that the argument is a wide-character string, but it's not: change it to

printf("%s", "test");

Answer 3

the "%s" format string tells wprintf it should interpret the first argument as a wide character string.

To avoid these mixed-encoding problems, you can use the TCHAR macro's:

LPCTSTR pName = _T("World");
_tprintf( _T("%s, %s"), _T("Hello"), pName );

Answer 4

A good habit is to use portability macro _T() which does nothing when we use ASCII and prepends all strings with L when UNICODE is defined. And using _t prepended functions which are really just macros that map to plain functions when we use ASCII and map to w prepended functions when UNICODE is defined. That way you always have a portable code - which works in both versions:

_tprintf(_T("%s"),_T("test");