How to write a std::string to a UTF-8 text file

Question

I just want to write some few simple lines to a text file in C++, but I want them to be encoded in UTF-8. What is the easiest and simple way to do so?

Answer 1

What is the easiest and simple way to do so?

The most intuitive and thus easiest handling of utf8 in C++ is for sure using a drop-in replacement for std::string. As the internet still lacks of one, I went to implement the functionality on my own:

tinyutf8 (EDIT: now Github).

This library provides a very lightweight drop-in preplacement for std::string (or std::u32string if you will, because you iterate over codepoints rather that chars). Ity is implemented succesfully in the middle between fast access and small memory consumption, while being very robust. This robustness to 'invalid' UTF8-sequences makes it (nearly completely) compatible with ANSI (0-255).

Hope this helps!