Using Greek symbols in C++ code

Question

I used to use greek symbols like α and ε in my variable declaration in c++ code without problems. I changed the platform to Ubuntu and I started getting errors like these during the compilation:

stray ‘\316’ in progra
stray ‘\261’ in program

Can I fix this problem without having to change my code?

Have you tried gcc's `-finput-charset=`? Checked now, utf-8 should be the default. — mockinterface, Mar 09 '14 at 11:27
Read http://stackoverflow.com/questions/331690/c-source-in-unicode for some thoughts. — Jongware, Mar 09 '14 at 11:28
If I understand the “basic source character set” correctly, you quite simply can’t do that. The basic source character set comprises exactly 96 characters, and there is no guarantee that, no matter what file encoding you use, characters outside this set can be mapped into the basic source character set. — Konrad Rudolph, Mar 09 '14 at 11:35
Intel compiler supports this but you are not using it, you are using gcc. These are gcc error messages. icc has different error messages. — n. m. could be an AI, Mar 09 '14 at 12:46

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 09 '14 at 12:20

2

In MSVC 2012 there would be no problem, you can download the greek language and write code as if you typed english, so the following is totally valid

#include <iostream>

#define ακέραιος int
#define για      for 
#define τυπωθήτω std::cout
#define πέρας    std::endl;

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
    για (ακέραιος αριθμός(0); αριθμός < 5; ++αριθμός)
    {
        τυπωθήτω << αριθμός << πέρας;
    } 
    return 0;
}

Other than that I haven't found an easy/natural way to use Greek with c++ code (or a reason to be fair)

NOTE: It's not an exception that VS does with Greek, it supports any language and I got the tip from reading a blog about writing c++ code in Hebrew

answered Mar 09 '14 at 12:20

Nikos Athanasiou

29,616
15
87
153

The question is about compilation on Ubuntu. This does not answer the question. Unless you can explain how to make MSVC run on Linux and produce Linux binaries, that is. – n. m. could be an AI Mar 09 '14 at 12:48
Then edit the title **Using Greek symbols in C++ code** to **Using Greek symbols in C++ code compiled in Ubuntu** or something (in which case I'd be happy to delete the answer). As long as someone can google their way to this question, searching for c++ in general, the answer is posted for completeness. – Nikos Athanasiou Mar 09 '14 at 12:58
What do you mean by “download the greek language”? – Konrad Rudolph Mar 09 '14 at 17:09
Getting the language for your OS, being able to type in Greek essentially (as opposed to entering a character's code from the Unicode Table) – Nikos Athanasiou Mar 09 '14 at 17:19
@KonradRudolph Feel free to edit that bit out if it's impecise/misleading – Nikos Athanasiou Mar 09 '14 at 17:27

Using Greek symbols in C++ code

1 Answers1