fstream with Japanese filenames?

Hi I'm currently making a studylist program for learning Japanese. I'm using an fstream reader to read and open my studylists and it works fine when the filename is in English, however when the filename is in Japanese, or any directory in the path is Japanese the fstream reader returns a null string. (actually it returns nothing which I'm assuming is null).

This is strange because reading the studylists (with Japanese entires) is fine, yet if the file is in Japanese it fails.

Am I missing something Thanks

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fstream with Japanese filenames?

Tao Ma
Thanks for the reply guys. I'll do what you suggested.

Also I just realised I wasn't entirely clear on the problem. It actually isn't a problem with the fstream. I'm using an openFileDialog instance to get the name of the file and the process goes something like this.

/* convert the String^ to a char* for fstream taken from MSDN forums */

// set the name as the CURRENTFILENAME
pin_ptr<const wchar_t> wch = PtrToStringChars(openFileDialog1->FileName->ToString());

// conver to a char*
size_t origsize = wcslen(wch)+1;
const size_t newsize = 100;
size_t convertedChars = 0;
char nstring[newsize];
wcstombs_s(&convertedChars, nstring, origsize, wch, _TRUNCATE);

currentFileName = nstring;

fstream reader;
reader.open(currentFileName, ios::in);

I've realised going using breakpoints that the convert to char* function is what returns the null value. It doesn't process the Japanese characters.
Davide Levorato
there might be a plug in that you need to allow the fstream reader to recognise japanese filenames. i know that there isnt one on the microsoft website.so look around the internet for a solution.

tyrone
MichelLef
thanks Osah, totally forgot to add to this thread when I found the solution, after a bit more reading I found that using wchar_t* like you suggested solved the problem only when using it with the setlocale. My bad on not posting the answer but big thanks for replying

Also it's a lot easier to convert a System String to wchar_t
Arun Goel

Frank Potter seems to have had the same problem as you. You might useful information in his post over at http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx PostID=371229&SiteID=1.

To check if the file could not be opened, you're supposed to check the fail bit of the ifstream.

ifstream ifFile(...);
if(ifFile.fail())
{
/* Could not open file */
}
steve1980
Did the setlocale functions not work

Alternatively, you can skip converting the string to char* and just pass the wchar_t*.

/* convert the String^ to a char* for fstream taken from MSDN forums */

// set the name as the CURRENTFILENAME
pin_ptr<const wchar_t> wch = PtrToStringChars(openFileDialog1->FileName->ToString());

fstream reader;
reader.open(wch, ios::in);

The ability to pass wchar_t* filenames to fstream::open is a new feature for VS2005.
fstream with Japanese filenames?

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