Convert wchar_t to char

Question

I was wondering is it safe to do so?

wchar_t wide = /* something */;
assert(wide >= 0 && wide < 256 &&);
char myChar = static_cast

        

Answer 1

In general, no. int(wchar_t(255)) == int(char(255)) of course, but that just means they have the same int value. They may not represent the same characters.

You would see such a discrepancy in the majority of Windows PCs, even. For instance, on Windows Code page 1250, char(0xFF) is the same character as wchar_t(0x02D9) (dot above), not wchar_t(0x00FF) (small y with diaeresis).

Note that it does not even hold for the ASCII range, as C++ doesn't even require ASCII. On IBM systems in particular you may see that 'A' != 65