Learning C: strange code, what does it do?

Question

I'm exploring wxWidgets and at the same time learning C/C++. Often wxWidgets functions expect a wxString rather than a string, therefore wxWidgets provides a macro wxT(yourString) for creating wxStrings. My question concerns the expansion of this macro. If you type wxT("banana") the expanded macro reads L"banana". What meaning does this have in C? Is L a function here that is called with argument "banana"?

Answer 1

• "banana" is the word written using 1-byte ASCII characters.

• L"banana" is the word written using multi-byte (general 2=byte UNICODE) characters.

Answer 2

L is a flag on strings to let it know it's a wide (unicode) string.

Answer 3

The L tells your compiler that it's a unicode string instead of a "normal" one.