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<a name="sec:utf8-codecvt-facet-class"></a>


<h1><code>utf8_codecvt_facet</code></h1>


<pre>
template&lt;
    typename InternType = wchar_t, 
    typename ExternType = char
&gt; utf8_codecvt_facet
</pre>


<h2>Rationale</h2>


    UTF-8 is a method of encoding Unicode text in environments where 
    where data is stored as 8-bit characters and some ascii characters 
    are considered special (i.e. Unix filesystem filenames) and tend
    to appear more commonly than other characters.  While
    UTF-8 is convenient and efficient for storing data on filesystems, 
    it was not meant to be manipulated in memory by
    applications. While some applications (such as Unix's 'cat') can
    simply ignore the encoding of data, others should convert 
    from UTF-8 to UCS-4 (the more canonical representation of Unicode) 
    on reading from file, and reversing the process on writing out to
    file.
    
    <p>The C++ Standard IOStreams provides the <tt>std::codecvt</tt>
    facet to handle specifically these cases.  On reading from or
    writing to a file, the <tt>std::basic_filebuf</tt> can call out to
    the codecvt facet to convert data representations from external
    format (ie. UTF-8) to internal format (ie. UCS-4) and
    vice-versa. <tt>utf8_codecvt_facet</tt> is a specialization of
    <tt>std::codecvt</tt> specifically designed to handle the case
    of translating between UTF-8 and UCS-4.


<h2>Template Parameters</h2>

<table border summary="template parameters">
<tr>
<th>Parameter</th><th>Description</th><th>Default</th>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><tt>InternType</tt></td>
<td>The internal type used to represent UCS-4 characters.</td>
<td><tt>wchar_t</tt></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><tt>ExternType</tt></td>
<td>The external type used to represent UTF-8 octets.</td>
<td><tt>char_t</tt></td>
</tr>
</table>


<h2>Requirements</h2>

    <tt>utf8_codecvt_facet</tt> defaults to using <tt>char</tt> as
    it's external data type and <tt>wchar_t</tt> as it's internal
    datatype, but on some architectures <tt>wchar_t</tt> is
    not large enough to hold UCS-4 characters.  In order to use
    another internal type.You must also specialize <tt>std::codecvt</tt>
    to handle your internal and external types.
    (<tt>std::codecvt&lt;char,wchar_t,std::mbstate_t&gt;</tt> is required to be
    supplied by any standard-conforming compiler).


<h2>Example Use</h2>
    The following is a simple example of using this facet:

<pre>
  //...
  // My encoding type
  typedef wchar_t ucs4_t;

  std::locale old_locale;
  std::locale utf8_locale(old_locale,new utf8_codecvt_facet&lt;ucs4_t&gt;);

  // Set a New global locale
  std::locale::global(utf8_locale);

  // Send the UCS-4 data out, converting to UTF-8
  {
    std::wofstream ofs("data.ucd");
    ofs.imbue(utf8_locale);
    std::copy(ucs4_data.begin(),ucs4_data.end(),
          std::ostream_iterator&lt;ucs4_t,ucs4_t&gt;(ofs));
  }

  // Read the UTF-8 data back in, converting to UCS-4 on the way in
  std::vector&lt;ucs4_t&gt; from_file;
  {
    std::wifstream ifs("data.ucd");
    ifs.imbue(utf8_locale);
    ucs4_t item = 0;
    while (ifs &gt;&gt; item) from_file.push_back(item);
  }
  //...
</pre>


<h2>History</h2>

    This code was originally written as an iterator adaptor over
    containers for use with UTF-8 encoded strings in memory.
    Dietmar Kuehl suggested that it would be better provided as a
    codecvt facet.

<h2>Resources</h2>

<ul>
<li> <a href="http://www.unicode.org">Unicode Homepage</a>
<li> <a href="http://home.CameloT.de/langer/iostreams.htm">Standard
      C++ IOStreams and Locales</a>
<li> <a href="http://www.research.att.com/~bs/3rd.html">The C++
      Programming Language Special Edition, Appendix D.</a> 
</ul>

<br>
<hr>
<table summary="Copyright information">
<tr valign="top">
<td nowrap>Copyright &copy; 2001</td>
<td><a href="http://www.osl.iu.edu/~garcia">Ronald Garcia</a>,
Indiana University 
(<a href="mailto:garcia@cs.indiana.edu">garcia@osl.iu.edu</a>)<br>
<a href="http://www.osl.iu.edu/~lums">Andrew Lumsdaine</a>,
Indiana University
(<a href="mailto:lums@osl.iu.edu">lums@osl.iu.edu</a>)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p><i>&copy; Copyright <a href="http://www.rrsd.com">Robert Ramey</a> 2002-2004. 
Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See
accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
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