Question

I would like to know how to change the console title in C++ using a string as the new parameter.
I know you can use the SetConsoleTitle function of the Win32 API but that does not take a string parameter.
I need this because I am doing a Java native interface project with console effects and commands.
I am using windows and it only has to be compatible with Windows.

Answer 1

The SetConsoleTitle function does indeed take a string argument. It’s just that the kind of string depends on the use of UNICODE or not.

You have to use e.g. the T macro to make sure the literal string is of the correct format (wide character or single byte):

SetConsoleTitle(T("Some title"));

If you are using e.g. std::string things get a little more complicated, as you might have to convert between std::string and std::wstring depending on the UNICODE macro.

One way of not having to do that conversion is to always use only std::string if UNICODE is not defined, or only std::wstring if it is defined. This can be done by adding a typedef in the "stdafx.h" header file:

#ifdef UNICODE
typedef std::wstring tstring;
#else
typedef std::string tstring;
#endif

If your problem is that SetConsoleTitle doesn’t take a std::string (or std::wstring) it’s because it has to be compatible with C programs which doesn’t have the string classes (or classes at all). In that case you use the c_str of the string classes to get a pointer to the string to be used with function that require old-style C strings:

tstring title = T("Some title");
SetConsoleTitle(title.c_str());

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There’s also another solution, and that is to use the explicit narrow-character "ASCII" version of the function, which have an A suffix:

SetConsoleTitleA("Some title");

There’s of course also a wide-character variant, with a W suffix:

SetConsoleTitleW(L"Some title");