C++ regex with char and wchar_t?

Question

I have a const char and a const wchar_t. My function below works with the char. What\'s the simplest/most efficient way to write a function that can easily handle both char an

Answer 1

For this reason exactly, regex is a typedef of basic_regex, much like string is a typedef of basic_string. Knowing this, you can get away with a single template:

template
std::basic_string
  replaceSubstring(const CharType* find, const CharType* str, const CharType* rep)
{
    std::basic_string text(str);
    std::basic_regex reg(find);
    return std::regex_replace(text, reg, rep);
}

This correctly handles both char pointers and wchar_t pointers, and returns the correct type of string. You may want to accept const std::basic_string& parameters instead, too.