C51: Wide Character Support

Information in this article applies to:

• C51 Version 5.50a
• C51 Version 6.03

QUESTION

I must implement UNICODE using Wide Characters in C. I noticed that in STDLIB.H in the INC directory the following is defined:

#ifndef _WCHAR_T_DEFINED_
#define _WCHAR_T_DEFINED_
typedef char wchar_t;
#endif

Shouldn't wchat_t be defined as an unsigned int or and unsigned short?

ANSWER

Yes. It probably should. However, the Keil C51 Compiler V6 and earlier does not support wide characters.

The tools do not use this data type, so you are free to change it to whatever suits your needs. Note that printf and the other library routines to not support wide characters. So, you'll have to write your own routines to provide that support.

We may incorporate wide character support in future releases of the tools.

MORE INFORMATION

• Refer to Compiler-Related in the Cx51 User's Guide.

Last Reviewed: Thursday, February 25, 2021