Raymond Chen explains it here: [TEXT vs. _TEXT vs. _T, and UNICODE vs. _UNICODE](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040212-00/?p=40643/):

&gt; The plain versions without the underscore affect the character set the Windows header files treat as default. So if you define `UNICODE`, then `GetWindowText` will map to `GetWindowTextW` instead of `GetWindowTextA`, for example. Similarly, the `TEXT` macro will map to `L&quot;...&quot;` instead of `&quot;...&quot;`.
&gt;
&gt;The versions with the underscore affect the character set the C runtime header files treat as default. So if you define `_UNICODE`, then `_tcslen` will map to `wcslen` instead of `strlen`, for example. Similarly, the `_TEXT` macro will map to `L&quot;...&quot;` instead of `&quot;...&quot;`. 

Looking into Windows SDK you will find things like this:

    #ifdef _UNICODE
    #ifndef UNICODE
    #define UNICODE
    #endif
    #endif

In a nutshell,

`UNICODE` is used by Windows headers,

whereas

`_UNICODE` is used by C-runtime/MFC headers.

Compiler vendors have to prefix the identifiers in their header files with an underscore to prevent them from colliding with your identifiers.  So `&lt;tchar.h&gt;`, a compiler header file, uses _UNICODE.  The Windows SDK header files are compiler agnostic, and stone-cold old, it uses UNICODE without the underscore.  You&#39;ll have to define both.

Using PHP, I have to parse a string coming to my code in a format like this:

    object(stdClass)(4) { 
        [&quot;Title&quot;]=&gt; string(5) &quot;Fruit&quot; 
        [&quot;Color&quot;]=&gt; string(6) &quot;yellow&quot; 
        [&quot;Name&quot;]=&gt; string(6) &quot;banana&quot; 
        [&quot;id&quot;]=&gt; int(3) 
    }

I&#39;m sure there&#39;s a simple solution, but I can&#39;t seem to find it... how to get the Color and Name?

Thanks so much.

How do I get the value from object(stdClass)?

I have a pretty simple form:

    from django import forms

    class InitialSignupForm(forms.Form):
        email = forms.EmailField()
        password = forms.CharField(max_length=255, widget = forms.PasswordInput)
        password_repeat = forms.CharField(max_length=255, widget = forms.PasswordInput)

        def clean_message(self):
            email = self.clean_data.get(&#39;email&#39;, &#39;&#39;)
            password = self.clean_data.get(&#39;password&#39;, &#39;&#39;)
            password_repeat = self.clean_data.get(&#39;password_repeat&#39;, &#39;&#39;)

            try:
                User.objects.get(email_address = email)
                raise forms.ValidationError(&quot;Email taken.&quot;)
            except User.DoesNotExist:
                pass

            if password != password_repeat:
                raise forms.ValidationError(&quot;The passwords don&#39;t match.&quot;)

Is this how custom form validation is done? I need to evaluate on `email` that no users currently exist with that email address. I also need to evaluate that `password` and `password_repeat` match. How can I go about doing this? 

Custom form validation

I&#39;ve been looking at the command line generated by Visual Studio, and for one of my project it defines two symbols: `_UNICODE` and `UNICODE`.  Now if I understand this document [this rather old ][1] document, the `_UNICODE` symbol is a VC++ thing that causes certain standard functions to use `wchar_t` instead of `char` in their interfaces.   

But what does the `UNICODE` without an underscore mean?


  [1]: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc194799.aspx

Why both UNICODE and _UNICODE?

<p>I've been looking at the command line generated by Visual Studio, and for one of my project it defines two symbols: <code>_UNICODE</code> and <code>UNICODE</code>.  Now if I understand this document <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc194799.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this rather old </a> document, the <code>_UNICODE</code> symbol is a VC++ thing that causes certain standard functions to use <code>wchar_t</code> instead of <code>char</code> in their interfaces.</p>
<p>But what does the <code>UNICODE</code> without an underscore mean?</p>


I currently develop in C++ on Windows, using Visual Studio 2010. After the official announcement of C++11, I have begun to use some of its features that are already available in MSVC. But, as expected, the great majority of the new changes are not supported.

I thought maybe the upcoming version of Visual Studio would add these new features. However, after reading [this][1] it looks like very little is going to change.

And so, I&#39;m curious about the feasibility of using GCC on Windows rather than MSVC, as it appears to support the great majority of C++11 already. As far as I can tell, this would mean using MinGW (I haven&#39;t seen any other native Windows versions of GCC). But I have questions about whether this would be worth trying:

 - Can it be used as a drop-in replacement for cl.exe, or would it involve a lot of hacks and compatibility issues to get Visual Studio to use a different compiler?
 - The main selling point for Visual Studio, in my opinion, is it&#39;s debugger. Is that still usable if you use a different compiler?
 - Since GCC comes from the *nix world, and isn&#39;t native to Windows, are there code quality issues with creating native Windows applications, versus using the native MSVC compiler? (If it matters: most of my projects are games.)
 - In other words, will the quality of my compiled exe&#39;s suffer from using a non-Windows-native compiler?



  [1]: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2011/09/12/10209291.aspx

GCC worth using on Windows to replace MSVC?

The following code (taken [from here][1]):

    int* ptr = int();

compiles in Visual C++ and value-initializes the pointer.

How is that possible? I mean `int()` yields an object of type `int` and I can&#39;t assign an `int` to a pointer.

How is the code above not illegal?


  [1]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8067568/how-do-i-value-initialize-a-type-pointer-using-type-like-syntax/8067658#8067658

How is &quot;int* ptr = int()&quot; value initialization not illegal?

What is the simplest way to get the file name that from a path? 

    string filename = &quot;C:\\MyDirectory\\MyFile.bat&quot;

In this example, I should get &quot;MyFile&quot;. without extension.

Get a file name from a path

If I come across old code that does `if (!this) return;` in an app, how severe a risk is this? Is it a dangerous ticking time bomb that requires an immediate app-wide search and destroy effort, or is it more like a code smell that can be quietly left in place?

I am not planning on *writing* code that does this, of course. Rather, I&#39;ve recently discovered something in an old core library used by many pieces of our app. 

Imagine a `CLookupThingy` class has a *non-virtual* `CThingy *CLookupThingy::Lookup( name )` member function. Apparently one of the programmers back in those cowboy days encountered many crashes where NULL `CLookupThingy *`s were being passed from functions, and rather than fixing hundreds of call sites, he quietly fixed up Lookup():

    CThingy *CLookupThingy::Lookup( name ) 
    {
       if (!this)
       {
          return NULL;
       }
       // else do the lookup code...
    }
    
    // now the above can be used like
    CLookupThingy *GetLookup() 
    {
      if (notReady()) return NULL;
      // else etc...
    }
    
    CThingy *pFoo = GetLookup()-&gt;Lookup( &quot;foo&quot; ); // will set pFoo to NULL without crashing

I discovered this gem earlier this week, but now am conflicted as to whether I ought to fix it. This is in a core library used by all of our apps. Several of those apps have already been shipped to millions of customers, and it seems to be working fine; there are no crashes or other bugs from that code. Removing the `if !this` in the lookup function will mean fixing thousands of call sites that potentially pass NULL; inevitably some will be missed, introducing new bugs that will pop up randomly over the next *year* of development. 

So I&#39;m inclined to leave it alone, unless absolutely necessary.

Given that it is technically undefined behavior, how dangerous is `if (!this)` in practice? Is it worth man-weeks of labor to fix, or can MSVC and GCC be counted on to safely return?

Our app compiles on MSVC and GCC, and runs on Windows, Ubuntu, and MacOS. Portability to other platforms is irrelevant. The function in question is guaranteed to never be virtual.

**Edit:** The kind of objective answer I am looking for is something like

 - &quot;Current versions of MSVC and GCC use an ABI where nonvirtual members are really statics with an implicit &#39;this&#39; parameter; therefore they will safely branch into the function even if &#39;this&#39; is NULL&quot; or 
 - &quot;a forthcoming version of GCC will change the ABI so that even nonvirtual functions require loading a branch target from the class pointer&quot; or 
 - &quot;the current GCC 4.5 has an inconsistent ABI where sometimes it compiles nonvirtual members as direct branches with an implicit parameter, and sometimes as class-offset function pointers.&quot; 

The former means the code is stinky but unlikely to break; the second is something to test after a compiler upgrade; the latter requires immediate action even at high cost. 

Clearly this is a latent bug waiting to happen, but right now I&#39;m only concerned with mitigating risk on our specific compilers.

How bad is &quot;if (!this)&quot; in a C++ member function?

I hope you can help me, cause I have no idea about what&#39;s going on. I&#39;m having the following error while trying to add Beecrypt library to my project:

&gt; fatal error C1010: unexpected end of file while looking for precompiled header. Did you forget to add &#39;#include &quot;stdafx.h&quot;&#39; to your source?

Actually I did not forget to add #include &quot;stdafx&quot; to my source. The compiler points the error to be at the end of this .cxx file:

    #define BEECRYPT_CXX_DLL_EXPORT

    #ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
    # include &quot;config.h&quot;
    #endif

    #include &quot;beecrypt/c++/security/SecureRandom.h&quot;
    #include &quot;beecrypt/c++/security/SecureRandomSpi.h&quot;
    #include &quot;beecrypt/c++/security/Security.h&quot;

    using namespace beecrypt::security;

    SecureRandom* SecureRandom::getInstance(const String&amp; algorithm) throw       (NoSuchAlgorithmException)
     {
	Security::spi* tmp = Security::getSpi(algorithm, &quot;SecureRandom&quot;);

	assert(dynamic_cast&lt;SecureRandomSpi*&gt;(tmp-&gt;cspi));

	SecureRandom* result = new SecureRandom(reinterpret_cast&lt;SecureRandomSpi*&gt;(tmp-&gt;cspi), tmp-&gt;prov, tmp-&gt;name);

	delete tmp;

	return result;
    }

     SecureRandom* SecureRandom::getInstance(const String&amp; type, const String&amp; provider) throw (NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchProviderException)
      {
	Security::spi* tmp = Security::getSpi(type, &quot;SecureRandom&quot;, provider);

	assert(dynamic_cast&lt;SecureRandomSpi*&gt;(tmp-&gt;cspi));

	SecureRandom* result = new SecureRandom(reinterpret_cast&lt;SecureRandomSpi*&gt;(tmp-&gt;cspi), tmp-&gt;prov, tmp-&gt;name);

	delete tmp;

	return result;
        }

       SecureRandom* SecureRandom::getInstance(const String&amp; type, const Provider&amp; provider) throw (NoSuchAlgorithmException)
       {
	Security::spi* tmp = Security::getSpi(type, &quot;SecureRandom&quot;, provider);

	assert(dynamic_cast&lt;SecureRandomSpi*&gt;(tmp-&gt;cspi));

	SecureRandom* result = new SecureRandom(reinterpret_cast&lt;SecureRandomSpi*&gt;(tmp-&gt;cspi), tmp-&gt;prov, tmp-&gt;name);

	delete tmp;

	return result;
         }

      void SecureRandom::getSeed(byte* data, int size)
     {
	entropyGatherNext(data, size);
     }

     SecureRandom::SecureRandom()
     {
	Security::spi* tmp = Security::getFirstSpi(&quot;SecureRandom&quot;);

	assert(dynamic_cast&lt;SecureRandomSpi*&gt;((SecureRandomSpi*) tmp-&gt;cspi));

	_rspi = (SecureRandomSpi*) tmp-&gt;cspi;
	_type = tmp-&gt;name;
	_prov = tmp-&gt;prov;

	delete tmp;
       }

      SecureRandom::SecureRandom(SecureRandomSpi* rspi, const Provider* provider, const String&amp; type)
      {
	_rspi = rspi;
	_prov = provider;
	_type = type;
      }

     SecureRandom::~SecureRandom()
     {
	delete _rspi;
     }

    void SecureRandom::generateSeed(byte* data, int size)
     {
	_rspi-&gt;engineGenerateSeed(data, size);
     }

     void SecureRandom::setSeed(const byte* data, int size)
     {
	_rspi-&gt;engineSetSeed(data, size);
     }

      void SecureRandom::nextBytes(byte* data, int size)
     {
	_rspi-&gt;engineNextBytes(data, size);
     }

     const String&amp; SecureRandom::getType() const throw ()
     {
	return _type;
     }

      const Provider&amp; SecureRandom::getProvider() const throw ()
     {
	return *_prov;
      }

and here is h file:

    #ifndef _CLASS_BEE_SECURITY_SECURERANDOM_H
    #define _CLASS_BEE_SECURITY_SECURERANDOM_H

    #include &quot;beecrypt/beecrypt.h&quot;

    #ifdef __cplusplus

    #include &quot;beecrypt/c++/security/SecureRandomSpi.h&quot;
    using beecrypt::security::SecureRandomSpi;
    #include &quot;beecrypt/c++/security/Provider.h&quot;
    using beecrypt::security::Provider;
    #include &quot;beecrypt/c++/security/NoSuchAlgorithmException.h&quot;
    using beecrypt::security::NoSuchAlgorithmException;
    #include &quot;beecrypt/c++/security/NoSuchProviderException.h&quot;
    using beecrypt::security::NoSuchProviderException;

     namespace beecrypt {
	namespace security {
		/*!\ingroup CXX_SECURITY_m
		 */
		class BEECRYPTCXXAPI SecureRandom : public Object
		{
		public:
			static SecureRandom* getInstance(const String&amp; type)    throw (NoSuchAlgorithmException);
			static SecureRandom* getInstance(const String&amp; type,    const String&amp; provider) throw (NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchProviderException);
			static SecureRandom* getInstance(const String&amp; type,   const Provider&amp; provider) throw (NoSuchAlgorithmException);

			static void getSeed(byte*, int);

		private:
			SecureRandomSpi* _rspi;
			const Provider*  _prov;
			String           _type;

		protected:
			SecureRandom(SecureRandomSpi* spi, const Provider*   provider, const String&amp; type);
  
		public:
			SecureRandom();
			virtual ~SecureRandom();

			void generateSeed(byte*, int);
			void nextBytes(byte*, int);
			void setSeed(const byte*, int);

			const String&amp; getType() const throw ();
			const Provider&amp; getProvider() const throw ();
		};
	}
       }

       #endif

       #endif

Sorry for so much code.

Unexpected end of file error

I&#39;ve tried implementing a function like this, but unfortunately it doesn&#39;t work:

    const wchar_t *GetWC(const char *c)
    {
        const size_t cSize = strlen(c)+1;
        wchar_t wc[cSize];
        mbstowcs (wc, c, cSize);

        return wc;
    }

My main goal here is to be able to integrate normal char strings in a Unicode application. Any advice you guys can offer is greatly appreciated.

How to convert char* to wchar_t*?

Let&#39;s see the following code snippet in Java.
    
    public class Main {
        public static void main(String[] args) {
            // new Character(&#39; \u000d System.out.println(&quot;Hello&quot;);
        }
    }


----------

In the above code, although the only line in the `main()` method is commented out, it displays the output `Hello` on the console, even though it looks like that this commented line contains some syntax errors. If this line is uncommented, it will not work at all, causing a compile-time error.

Why does it output &quot;Hello&quot; here?




A unicode newline character(\u000d) in Java

I&#39;m working with a .txt file. I want a string of the text from the file with no non-ASCII characters. However, I want to leave spaces and periods. At present, I&#39;m stripping those too. Here&#39;s the code:

    def onlyascii(char):
        if ord(char) &lt; 48 or ord(char) &gt; 127: return &#39;&#39;
        else: return char
    
    def get_my_string(file_path):
        f=open(file_path,&#39;r&#39;)
        data=f.read()
        f.close()
        filtered_data=filter(onlyascii, data)
        filtered_data = filtered_data.lower()
        return filtered_data

How should I modify onlyascii() to leave spaces and periods? I imagine it&#39;s not too complicated but I can&#39;t figure it out.

How can I remove non-ASCII characters but leave periods and spaces?

Are there Unicode characters that represent Copy and Paste? Perhaps in Unicode 6?

(there are scissor symbols that can be used fittingly to represent Cut (e.g. ✂ U+2702) but i could never find one to represent Copy or Paste.)

is there a Unicode character for Copy and Paste?

I use `curl` to get some URL response, it&#39;s JSON response and it contains unicode-escaped national characters like **`\u0144 (ń)`** and **`\u00f3 (&#243;)`**. 

How can I convert them to **UTF-8** or any other encoding to save into file?

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Adrian Ratnapala	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Visual C++	Roman R.	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Visual C++	AminM	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Visual C++	Hans Passant	View Answer on Stackoverflow

Why both UNICODE and _UNICODE?

Visual C++ Problem Overview

Visual C++ Solutions

Solution 1 - Visual C++

Solution 2 - Visual C++

Solution 3 - Visual C++

Custom form validation

How do I get the value from object(stdClass)?

Attributions