[c++] How to convert std::string to LPCWSTR in C++ (Unicode)

I'm looking for a method, or a code snippet for converting std::string to LPCWSTR

If you are in an ATL/MFC environment, You can use the ATL conversion macro:

#include <atlbase.h>
#include <atlconv.h>

. . .

string myStr("My string");
CA2W unicodeStr(myStr);

You can then use unicodeStr as an LPCWSTR. The memory for the unicode string is created on the stack and released then the destructor for unicodeStr executes.

The solution is actually a lot easier than any of the other suggestions:

std::wstring stemp = std::wstring(s.begin(), s.end());
LPCWSTR sw = stemp.c_str();

Best of all, it's platform independent.

I prefer using standard converters:

#include <codecvt>

std::string s = "Hi";
std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8_utf16<wchar_t>> converter;
std::wstring wide = converter.from_bytes(s);
LPCWSTR result = wide.c_str();

Please find more details in this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/18597384/592651

Update 12/21/2020 : My answer was commented on by @Andreas H . I thought his comment is valuable, so I updated my answer accordingly:

1. codecvt_utf8_utf16 is deprecated in C++17.
2. Also the code implies that source encoding is UTF-8 which it usually isn't.
3. In C++20 there is a separate type std::u8string for UTF-8 because of that.

But it worked for me because I am still using an old version of C++ and it happened that my source encoding was UTF-8 .

Instead of using a std::string, you could use a std::wstring.

EDIT: Sorry this is not more explanatory, but I have to run.

Use std::wstring::c_str()

string  myMessage="helloworld";
int len;
int slength = (int)myMessage.length() + 1;
len = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, myMessage.c_str(), slength, 0, 0); 
wchar_t* buf = new wchar_t[len];
MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, myMessage.c_str(), slength, buf, len);
std::wstring r(buf);
 std::wstring stemp = r.C_str();
LPCWSTR result = stemp.c_str();

LPCWSTR lpcwName=std::wstring(strname.begin(), strname.end()).c_str()