need_uconvert(3)

📦 version 4.4.3.1, in fedora 43, fedora 44

✨ need_uconvert ✨

okay bestie, gather round, because this one is genuinely a lil gem from the Allegro game programming library 💜 (that's the manual we're in, mwah).

🎀 NAME 🎀

need_uconvert — the function that tells you if a string requires encoding conversion. yes. that's literally its whole job and it does it flawlessly, no notes 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <allegro.h>

int need_uconvert(const char *s, int type, int newtype);

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the vibe: you hand it a pointer to a string (s), you tell it what kind of string it currently is (type), and you tell it what kind you want it to be (newtype). and then it just… tells you whether any conversion is even required. that's it. that's the whole function. iconic behaviour honestly ✨

now, when does it say "nah you're good, no conversion needed"? two cases:

  • if type and newtype are the same — like, obviously, nothing to do here girl 💀
  • if one type is ASCII and the other is UTF-8, and the string only contains character values less than 128. because in that case everything is chillin', no work required 🌈

and here's the convenience shortcut that makes life soooo much easier: you can pass the value U_CURRENT as either of the type parameters, and it'll stand in for whatever text encoding format is currently selected. periodt 👑

example, because I know you want one:

if (need_uconvert(text, U_UTF8, U_CURRENT)) {
   /* conversion is required */
}

see how cute that reads? 🥰

👑 RETURN VALUE 👑

  • returns non-zero if any conversion is required
  • returns zero otherwise

fr fr, that's the whole contract.

💖 SEE ALSO 💖

🌟 little reminder bestie: this is the need_uconvert(3) page, and it shipped with Allegro version 4.4.3. go convert something slay 💅✨

🫶 bye babes, ily, read the other pages too 🦋🌸

📦 where this page comes from