The GCC compiler (or G++) does not always work with our source code files just as we would expect it to. This specially happens when there are special characters in our files (the ones with ASCII codes higher than 127).

Take the following program as a sample (the strings are written in spanish):

#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::cin;
using std::endl;

#include <string>
using std::string;

int main()
{
	string sDummy;

	cout << "Por favor ingrese su contraseña: ";
	cin >> sDummy;

	cout << endl;
	cout << "Su contraseña es inválida, por favor verifíquela e inténtelo nuevamente. Ha ingresado: '" << sDummy << "'." << endl;

	return 0;
}

Let’s compile it…

g++ TestChars.cpp -o TestChars.exe

And execute it… We can easily imagine the output… But… This is what we get:

Por favor ingrese su contrase±a: contraseña

Su contrase±a es invßlida, por favor veriffquela e intTntelo nuevamente. Ha ingresado: 'contraseña'.

Notice that the string that we’ve just typed (“contraseña”) gets correctly printed, while the ones hard-coded in the program don’t.

So… What can we do?

Well, there are some compiler command line parameters ready to help us… They are the finput-charset and fexec-charset command line arguments…

Both take as additional parameter a charset name from the ones supported by the compiler…

For the interested ones, here is the output of the charsets supported by the library that GCC uses to make the conversion… They may not be the same on every system…

# iconv --list
The following list contain all the coded character sets known.  This does not necessarily mean that all combinations of these names can be used for the FROM and TO command line parameters.  One coded character set can be listed with several different names (aliases).

437, 500, 500V1, 850, 851, 852, 855, 856, 857, 860, 861, 862, 863, 864, 865, 866, 866NAV, 869, 874, 904, 1026, 1046, 1047, 8859_1, 8859_2, 8859_3, 8859_4, 8859_5, 8859_6, 8859_7, 8859_8, 8859_9, 10646-1:1993, 10646-1:1993/UCS4, ANSI_X3.4-1968, ANSI_X3.4-1986, ANSI_X3.4, ANSI_X3.110-1983, ANSI_X3.110, ARABIC, ARABIC7, ARMSCII-8, ASCII, ASMO-708, ASMO_449, BALTIC, BIG-5, BIG-FIVE, BIG5-HKSCS, BIG5, BIG5HKSCS, BIGFIVE, BRF, BS_4730, CA, CN-BIG5, CN-GB, CN, CP-AR, CP-GR, CP-HU, CP037, CP038, CP273, CP274, CP275, CP278, CP280, CP281, CP282, CP284, CP285, CP290, CP297, CP367, CP420, CP423, CP424, CP437, CP500, CP737, CP775, CP803, CP813, CP819, CP850, CP851, CP852, CP855, CP856, CP857, CP860, CP861, CP862, CP863, CP864, CP865, CP866, CP866NAV, CP868, CP869, CP870, CP871, CP874, CP875, CP880, CP891, CP901, CP902, CP903, CP904, CP905, CP912, CP915, CP916, CP918, CP920, CP921, CP922, CP930, CP932, CP933, CP935, CP936, CP937, CP939, CP949, CP950, CP1004, CP1008, CP1025, CP1026, CP1046, CP1047, CP1070, CP1079, CP1081, CP1084, CP1089, CP1097, CP1112, CP1122, CP1123, CP1124, CP1125, CP1129, CP1130, CP1132, CP1133, CP1137, CP1140, CP1141, CP1142, CP1143, CP1144, CP1145, CP1146, CP1147, CP1148, CP1149, CP1153, CP1154, CP1155, CP1156, CP1157, CP1158, CP1160, CP1161, CP1162, CP1163, CP1164, CP1166, CP1167, CP1250, CP1251, CP1252, CP1253, CP1254, CP1255, CP1256, CP1257, CP1258, CP1282, CP1361, CP1364, CP1371, CP1388, CP1390, CP1399, CP4517, CP4899, CP4909, CP4971, CP5347, CP9030, CP9066, CP9448, CP10007, CP12712, CP16804, CPIBM861, CSA7-1, CSA7-2, CSASCII, CSA_T500-1983, CSA_T500, CSA_Z243.4-1985-1, CSA_Z243.4-1985-2, CSA_Z243.419851, CSA_Z243.419852, CSDECMCS, CSEBCDICATDE, CSEBCDICATDEA, CSEBCDICCAFR, CSEBCDICDKNO, CSEBCDICDKNOA, CSEBCDICES, CSEBCDICESA, CSEBCDICESS, CSEBCDICFISE, CSEBCDICFISEA, CSEBCDICFR, CSEBCDICIT, CSEBCDICPT, CSEBCDICUK, CSEBCDICUS, CSEUCKR, CSEUCPKDFMTJAPANESE, CSGB2312, CSHPROMAN8, CSIBM037, CSIBM038, CSIBM273, CSIBM274, CSIBM275, CSIBM277, CSIBM278, CSIBM280, CSIBM281, CSIBM284, CSIBM285, CSIBM290, CSIBM297, CSIBM420, CSIBM423, CSIBM424, CSIBM500, CSIBM803, CSIBM851, CSIBM855, CSIBM856, CSIBM857, CSIBM860, CSIBM863, CSIBM864, CSIBM865, CSIBM866, CSIBM868, CSIBM869, CSIBM870, CSIBM871, CSIBM880, CSIBM891, CSIBM901, CSIBM902, CSIBM903, CSIBM904, CSIBM905, CSIBM918, CSIBM921, CSIBM922, CSIBM930, CSIBM932, CSIBM933, CSIBM935, CSIBM937, CSIBM939, CSIBM943, CSIBM1008, CSIBM1025, CSIBM1026, CSIBM1097, CSIBM1112, CSIBM1122, CSIBM1123, CSIBM1124, CSIBM1129, CSIBM1130, CSIBM1132, CSIBM1133, CSIBM1137, CSIBM1140, CSIBM1141, CSIBM1142, CSIBM1143, CSIBM1144, CSIBM1145, CSIBM1146, CSIBM1147, CSIBM1148, CSIBM1149, CSIBM1153, CSIBM1154, CSIBM1155, CSIBM1156, CSIBM1157, CSIBM1158, CSIBM1160, CSIBM1161, CSIBM1163, CSIBM1164, CSIBM1166, CSIBM1167, CSIBM1364, CSIBM1371, CSIBM1388, CSIBM1390, CSIBM1399, CSIBM4517, CSIBM4899, CSIBM4909, CSIBM4971, CSIBM5347, CSIBM9030, CSIBM9066, CSIBM9448, CSIBM12712, CSIBM16804, CSIBM11621162, CSISO4UNITEDKINGDOM, CSISO10SWEDISH, CSISO11SWEDISHFORNAMES, CSISO14JISC6220RO, CSISO15ITALIAN, CSISO16PORTUGESE, CSISO17SPANISH, CSISO18GREEK7OLD, CSISO19LATINGREEK, CSISO21GERMAN, CSISO25FRENCH, CSISO27LATINGREEK1, CSISO49INIS, CSISO50INIS8, CSISO51INISCYRILLIC, CSISO58GB1988, CSISO60DANISHNORWEGIAN, CSISO60NORWEGIAN1, CSISO61NORWEGIAN2, CSISO69FRENCH, CSISO84PORTUGUESE2, CSISO85SPANISH2, CSISO86HUNGARIAN, CSISO88GREEK7, CSISO89ASMO449, CSISO90, CSISO92JISC62991984B, CSISO99NAPLPS, CSISO103T618BIT, CSISO111ECMACYRILLIC, CSISO121CANADIAN1, CSISO122CANADIAN2, CSISO139CSN369103, CSISO141JUSIB1002, CSISO143IECP271, CSISO150, CSISO150GREEKCCITT, CSISO151CUBA, CSISO153GOST1976874, CSISO646DANISH, CSISO2022CN, CSISO2022JP, CSISO2022JP2, CSISO2022KR, CSISO2033, CSISO5427CYRILLIC, CSISO5427CYRILLIC1981, CSISO5428GREEK, CSISO10367BOX, CSISOLATIN1, CSISOLATIN2, CSISOLATIN3, CSISOLATIN4, CSISOLATIN5, CSISOLATIN6, CSISOLATINARABIC, CSISOLATINCYRILLIC, CSISOLATINGREEK, CSISOLATINHEBREW, CSKOI8R, CSKSC5636, CSMACINTOSH, CSNATSDANO, CSNATSSEFI, CSN_369103, CSPC8CODEPAGE437, CSPC775BALTIC, CSPC850MULTILINGUAL, CSPC862LATINHEBREW, CSPCP852, CSSHIFTJIS, CSUCS4, CSUNICODE, CSWINDOWS31J, CUBA, CWI-2, CWI, CYRILLIC, DE, DEC-MCS, DEC, DECMCS, DIN_66003, DK, DS2089, DS_2089, E13B, EBCDIC-AT-DE-A, EBCDIC-AT-DE, EBCDIC-BE, EBCDIC-BR, EBCDIC-CA-FR, EBCDIC-CP-AR1, EBCDIC-CP-AR2, EBCDIC-CP-BE, EBCDIC-CP-CA, EBCDIC-CP-CH, EBCDIC-CP-DK, EBCDIC-CP-ES, EBCDIC-CP-FI, EBCDIC-CP-FR, EBCDIC-CP-GB, EBCDIC-CP-GR, EBCDIC-CP-HE, EBCDIC-CP-IS, EBCDIC-CP-IT, EBCDIC-CP-NL, EBCDIC-CP-NO, EBCDIC-CP-ROECE, EBCDIC-CP-SE, EBCDIC-CP-TR, EBCDIC-CP-US, EBCDIC-CP-WT, EBCDIC-CP-YU, EBCDIC-CYRILLIC, EBCDIC-DK-NO-A, EBCDIC-DK-NO, EBCDIC-ES-A, EBCDIC-ES-S, EBCDIC-ES, EBCDIC-FI-SE-A, EBCDIC-FI-SE, EBCDIC-FR, EBCDIC-GREEK, EBCDIC-INT, EBCDIC-INT1, EBCDIC-IS-FRISS, EBCDIC-IT, EBCDIC-JP-E, EBCDIC-JP-KANA, EBCDIC-PT, EBCDIC-UK, EBCDIC-US, EBCDICATDE, EBCDICATDEA, EBCDICCAFR, EBCDICDKNO, EBCDICDKNOA, EBCDICES, EBCDICESA, EBCDICESS, EBCDICFISE, EBCDICFISEA, EBCDICFR, EBCDICISFRISS, EBCDICIT, EBCDICPT, EBCDICUK, EBCDICUS, ECMA-114, ECMA-118, ECMA-128, ECMA-CYRILLIC, ECMACYRILLIC, ELOT_928, ES, ES2, EUC-CN, EUC-JISX0213, EUC-JP-MS, EUC-JP, EUC-KR, EUC-TW, EUCCN, EUCJP-MS, EUCJP-OPEN, EUCJP-WIN, EUCJP, EUCKR, EUCTW, FI, FR, GB, GB2312, GB13000, GB18030, GBK, GB_1988-80, GB_198880, GEORGIAN-ACADEMY, GEORGIAN-PS, GOST_19768-74, GOST_19768, GOST_1976874, GREEK-CCITT, GREEK, GREEK7-OLD, GREEK7, GREEK7OLD, GREEK8, GREEKCCITT, HEBREW, HP-GREEK8, HP-ROMAN8, HP-ROMAN9, HP-THAI8, HP-TURKISH8, HPGREEK8, HPROMAN8, HPROMAN9, HPTHAI8, HPTURKISH8, HU, IBM-803, IBM-856, IBM-901, IBM-902, IBM-921, IBM-922, IBM-930, IBM-932, IBM-933, IBM-935, IBM-937, IBM-939, IBM-943, IBM-1008, IBM-1025, IBM-1046, IBM-1047, IBM-1097, IBM-1112, IBM-1122, IBM-1123, IBM-1124, IBM-1129, IBM-1130, IBM-1132, IBM-1133, IBM-1137, IBM-1140, IBM-1141, IBM-1142, IBM-1143, IBM-1144, IBM-1145, IBM-1146, IBM-1147, IBM-1148, IBM-1149, IBM-1153, IBM-1154, IBM-1155, IBM-1156, IBM-1157, IBM-1158, IBM-1160, IBM-1161, IBM-1162, IBM-1163, IBM-1164, IBM-1166, IBM-1167, IBM-1364, IBM-1371, IBM-1388, IBM-1390, IBM-1399, IBM-4517, IBM-4899, IBM-4909, IBM-4971, IBM-5347, IBM-9030, IBM-9066, IBM-9448, IBM-12712, IBM-16804, IBM037, IBM038, IBM256, IBM273, IBM274, IBM275, IBM277, IBM278, IBM280, IBM281, IBM284, IBM285, IBM290, IBM297, IBM367, IBM420, IBM423, IBM424, IBM437, IBM500, IBM775, IBM803, IBM813, IBM819, IBM848, IBM850, IBM851, IBM852, IBM855, IBM856, IBM857, IBM860, IBM861, IBM862, IBM863, IBM864, IBM865, IBM866, IBM866NAV, IBM868, IBM869, IBM870, IBM871, IBM874, IBM875, IBM880, IBM891, IBM901, IBM902, IBM903, IBM904, IBM905, IBM912, IBM915, IBM916, IBM918, IBM920, IBM921, IBM922, IBM930, IBM932, IBM933, IBM935, IBM937, IBM939, IBM943, IBM1004, IBM1008, IBM1025, IBM1026, IBM1046, IBM1047, IBM1089, IBM1097, IBM1112, IBM1122, IBM1123, IBM1124, IBM1129, IBM1130, IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1137, IBM1140, IBM1141, IBM1142, IBM1143, IBM1144, IBM1145, IBM1146, IBM1147, IBM1148, IBM1149, IBM1153, IBM1154, IBM1155, IBM1156, IBM1157, IBM1158, IBM1160, IBM1161, IBM1162, IBM1163, IBM1164, IBM1166, IBM1167, IBM1364, IBM1371, IBM1388, IBM1390, IBM1399, IBM4517, IBM4899, IBM4909, IBM4971, IBM5347, IBM9030, IBM9066, IBM9448, IBM12712, IBM16804, IEC_P27-1, IEC_P271, INIS-8, INIS-CYRILLIC, INIS, INIS8, INISCYRILLIC, ISIRI-3342, ISIRI3342, ISO-2022-CN-EXT, ISO-2022-CN, ISO-2022-JP-2, ISO-2022-JP-3, ISO-2022-JP, ISO-2022-KR, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-2, ISO-8859-3, ISO-8859-4, ISO-8859-5, ISO-8859-6, ISO-8859-7, ISO-8859-8, ISO-8859-9, ISO-8859-9E, ISO-8859-10, ISO-8859-11, ISO-8859-13, ISO-8859-14, ISO-8859-15, ISO-8859-16, ISO-10646, ISO-10646/UCS2, ISO-10646/UCS4, ISO-10646/UTF-8, ISO-10646/UTF8, ISO-CELTIC, ISO-IR-4, ISO-IR-6, ISO-IR-8-1, ISO-IR-9-1, ISO-IR-10, ISO-IR-11, ISO-IR-14, ISO-IR-15, ISO-IR-16, ISO-IR-17, ISO-IR-18, ISO-IR-19, ISO-IR-21, ISO-IR-25, ISO-IR-27, ISO-IR-37, ISO-IR-49, ISO-IR-50, ISO-IR-51, ISO-IR-54, ISO-IR-55, ISO-IR-57, ISO-IR-60, ISO-IR-61, ISO-IR-69, ISO-IR-84, ISO-IR-85, ISO-IR-86, ISO-IR-88, ISO-IR-89, ISO-IR-90, ISO-IR-92, ISO-IR-98, ISO-IR-99, ISO-IR-100, ISO-IR-101, ISO-IR-103, ISO-IR-109, ISO-IR-110, ISO-IR-111, ISO-IR-121, ISO-IR-122, ISO-IR-126, ISO-IR-127, ISO-IR-138, ISO-IR-139, ISO-IR-141, ISO-IR-143, ISO-IR-144, ISO-IR-148, ISO-IR-150, ISO-IR-151, ISO-IR-153, ISO-IR-155, ISO-IR-156, ISO-IR-157, ISO-IR-166, ISO-IR-179, ISO-IR-193, ISO-IR-197, ISO-IR-199, ISO-IR-203, ISO-IR-209, ISO-IR-226, ISO/TR_11548-1, ISO646-CA, ISO646-CA2, ISO646-CN, ISO646-CU, ISO646-DE, ISO646-DK, ISO646-ES, ISO646-ES2, ISO646-FI, ISO646-FR, ISO646-FR1, ISO646-GB, ISO646-HU, ISO646-IT, ISO646-JP-OCR-B, ISO646-JP, ISO646-KR, ISO646-NO, ISO646-NO2, ISO646-PT, ISO646-PT2, ISO646-SE, ISO646-SE2, ISO646-US, ISO646-YU, ISO2022CN, ISO2022CNEXT, ISO2022JP, ISO2022JP2, ISO2022KR, ISO6937, ISO8859-1, ISO8859-2, ISO8859-3, ISO8859-4, ISO8859-5, ISO8859-6, ISO8859-7, ISO8859-8, ISO8859-9, ISO8859-9E, ISO8859-10, ISO8859-11, ISO8859-13, ISO8859-14, ISO8859-15, ISO8859-16, ISO11548-1, ISO88591, ISO88592, ISO88593, ISO88594, ISO88595, ISO88596, ISO88597, ISO88598, ISO88599, ISO88599E, ISO885910, ISO885911, ISO885913, ISO885914, ISO885915, ISO885916, ISO_646.IRV:1991, ISO_2033-1983, ISO_2033, ISO_5427-EXT, ISO_5427, ISO_5427:1981, ISO_5427EXT, ISO_5428, ISO_5428:1980, ISO_6937-2, ISO_6937-2:1983, ISO_6937, ISO_6937:1992, ISO_8859-1, ISO_8859-1:1987, ISO_8859-2, ISO_8859-2:1987, ISO_8859-3, ISO_8859-3:1988, ISO_8859-4, ISO_8859-4:1988, ISO_8859-5, ISO_8859-5:1988, ISO_8859-6, ISO_8859-6:1987, ISO_8859-7, ISO_8859-7:1987, ISO_8859-7:2003, ISO_8859-8, ISO_8859-8:1988, ISO_8859-9, ISO_8859-9:1989, ISO_8859-9E, ISO_8859-10, ISO_8859-10:1992, ISO_8859-14, ISO_8859-14:1998, ISO_8859-15, ISO_8859-15:1998, ISO_8859-16, ISO_8859-16:2001, ISO_9036, ISO_10367-BOX, ISO_10367BOX, ISO_11548-1, ISO_69372, IT, JIS_C6220-1969-RO, JIS_C6229-1984-B, JIS_C62201969RO, JIS_C62291984B, JOHAB, JP-OCR-B, JP, JS, JUS_I.B1.002, KOI-7, KOI-8, KOI8-R, KOI8-RU, KOI8-T, KOI8-U, KOI8, KOI8R, KOI8U, KSC5636, L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, L6, L7, L8, L10, LATIN-9, LATIN-GREEK-1, LATIN-GREEK, LATIN1, LATIN2, LATIN3, LATIN4, LATIN5, LATIN6, LATIN7, LATIN8, LATIN10, LATINGREEK, LATINGREEK1, MAC-CENTRALEUROPE, MAC-CYRILLIC, MAC-IS, MAC-SAMI, MAC-UK, MAC, MACCYRILLIC, MACINTOSH, MACIS, MACUK, MACUKRAINIAN, MIK, MS-ANSI, MS-ARAB, MS-CYRL, MS-EE, MS-GREEK, MS-HEBR, MS-MAC-CYRILLIC, MS-TURK, MS932, MS936, MSCP949, MSCP1361, MSMACCYRILLIC, MSZ_7795.3, MS_KANJI, NAPLPS, NATS-DANO, NATS-SEFI, NATSDANO, NATSSEFI, NC_NC0010, NC_NC00-10, NC_NC00-10:81, NF_Z_62-010, NF_Z_62-010_(1973), NF_Z_62-010_1973, NF_Z_62010, NF_Z_62010_1973, NO, NO2, NS_4551-1, NS_4551-2, NS_45511, NS_45512, OS2LATIN1, OSF00010001, OSF00010002, OSF00010003, OSF00010004, OSF00010005, OSF00010006, OSF00010007, OSF00010008, OSF00010009, OSF0001000A, OSF00010020, OSF00010100, OSF00010101, OSF00010102, OSF00010104, OSF00010105, OSF00010106, OSF00030010, OSF0004000A, OSF0005000A, OSF05010001, OSF100201A4, OSF100201A8, OSF100201B5, OSF100201F4, OSF100203B5, OSF1002011C, OSF1002011D, OSF1002035D, OSF1002035E, OSF1002035F, OSF1002036B, OSF1002037B, OSF10010001, OSF10010004, OSF10010006, OSF10020025, OSF10020111, OSF10020115, OSF10020116, OSF10020118, OSF10020122, OSF10020129, OSF10020352, OSF10020354, OSF10020357, OSF10020359, OSF10020360, OSF10020364, OSF10020365, OSF10020366, OSF10020367, OSF10020370, OSF10020387, OSF10020388, OSF10020396, OSF10020402, OSF10020417, PT, PT2, PT154, R8, R9, RK1048, ROMAN8, ROMAN9, RUSCII, SE, SE2, SEN_850200_B, SEN_850200_C, SHIFT-JIS, SHIFT_JIS, SHIFT_JISX0213, SJIS-OPEN, SJIS-WIN, SJIS, SS636127, STRK1048-2002, ST_SEV_358-88, T.61-8BIT, T.61, T.618BIT, TCVN-5712, TCVN, TCVN5712-1, TCVN5712-1:1993, THAI8, TIS-620, TIS620-0, TIS620.2529-1, TIS620.2533-0, TIS620, TS-5881, TSCII, TURKISH8, UCS-2, UCS-2BE, UCS-2LE, UCS-4, UCS-4BE, UCS-4LE, UCS2, UCS4, UHC, UJIS, UK, UNICODE, UNICODEBIG, UNICODELITTLE, US-ASCII, US, UTF-7, UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE, UTF-32, UTF-32BE, UTF-32LE, UTF7, UTF8, UTF16, UTF16BE, UTF16LE, UTF32, UTF32BE, UTF32LE, VISCII, WCHAR_T, WIN-SAMI-2, WINBALTRIM, WINDOWS-31J, WINDOWS-874, WINDOWS-936, WINDOWS-1250, WINDOWS-1251, WINDOWS-1252, WINDOWS-1253, WINDOWS-1254, WINDOWS-1255, WINDOWS-1256, WINDOWS-1257, WINDOWS-1258, WINSAMI2, WS2, YU

The first parameter, finput-charset, is the charset used to read the source code files… The second one, fexec-charset, is the used to store the strings and character constants in the executable file, so they will be shown correctly while running…

So, assuming you’re writing your source files in iso-8859-1 (the most common charset on Windows platforms) and want to show them while running in cp437 (the DOS console charset), we could call the compiler like this:

g++ TestChars.cpp -o TestChars.exe -finput-charset=iso-8859-1 -fexec-charset=cp437

And what do we expect to get?

Por favor ingrese su contraseña: contraseña

Su contraseña es inválida, por favor verifíquela e inténtelo nuevamente. Ha ingresado: 'contraseña'.

Everything worked just the way we expected!

Now, finally, I’ll show how to configure these command line options for the wxDev IDE…

First of all, I must say there are two ways to set compiler options: global options and project options… As you may imagine, the first ones are applied to every compiled project, while the latter just get applied to the currently opened project (they are set in a per project basis)…

To set the parameters in the global compiler options you must got to the Tools menu and then open the Compiler Options item…

After that, you simply enter the following string (the parameters) into the “Add the following commands when calling compiler” box:

-finput-charset=iso-8859-1 -fexec-charset=cp437

If there are already other parameters configured, you should append them…

They will be sent to both the C compiler and the C++ compiler…

The other alternative is to set the same parameters in the project options…

First, we open the project options… Either going to Project->Project Options or right clicking the project and going to “Project Options”…

Then, we go to the Parameters page and paste the parameters string in the two compiler boxes… Both parameters can be entered either in a single line or broken apart… Just as before, if there are already other parameters configured, you should append them…

Whell, that’s all… Most IDEs will have similar options!