[SOLVED]How to display strings in language other than english

[adnan]

This program works fine, if i copy a string suppose in arabic "عدنان" in to textbox, pushing the button displays it in arabic in the label.
@void MainWindow::on_pushButton_clicked()
{
ui->label->setText(ui->lineEdit->text());
}@

But if I do something like this:
@void MainWindow::on_pushButton_clicked()
{
QString name("عدنان");
ui->label->setText(name);
}@

It displays some garbled text!

[uranusjr]

This is because the implicit C string - QString conversion uses Latin-1 by default.

There are many solutions to choose from:

1. Internationalization

Use Latin-character strings exclusively in your source, and use tr() to wrap string literals you wish to translate. Then, provide a translation file. This is best suited if you wish to (or plan to) make a multi-lingual application.

See "documentation":http://doc.qt.digia.com/latest/internationalization.html

2. Encode the C string explicitly

Example:

@
/* This file should be saved with UTF-8 */
#include <QApplication>
#include <QLabel>
#include <QTextCodec>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
QApplication a(argc, argv);
QTextCodec *codec = QTextCodec::codecForName("UTF-8");

QLabel l(codec->toUnicode("عدنان"));
l.show();

return a.exec();

}
@

You might want to use this approach if your program is one-shot. But this really is not a good choice in most cases.

3) Overwrite the default C string - QString conversion rule

Usually an appropriate alternative to method 2. Example:

@
/* This file should be saved with UTF-8 */
#include <QApplication>
#include <QLabel>
#include <QTextCodec>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
QApplication a(argc, argv);
QTextCodec::setCodecForCStrings(QTextCodec::codecForName("UTF-8"));

QLabel l("عدنان");
l.show();

return a.exec();

}
@

setCodecForCStrings() needs to be called only once in your application, and it overwrites all string conversion codec rule in the application.

And you can use encodings other than UTF-8, of course. You just need to match the codec used with the encoding of your source file(s).

[dangelog]

[quote author="uranusjr" date="1349562294"]
And you can use encodings other than UTF-8, of course. You just need to match the codec used with the encoding of your source file(s).[/quote]

The full story is actually a bit more complicated as it involves the execution charset, not the source charset. But most of the times the mapping is 1:1.

http://qt-project.org/wiki/Strings_and_encodings_in_Qt

[elmigranto]

QString::fromUtf8() saves the day. There is also QObject::trUtf8() if you are planning to internationalize. uranusjs's answer involving QTextCodec is also great.

[adnan]

Thanks a ton! It worked like a charm.
@QTextCodec::setCodecForCStrings(QTextCodec::codecForName("UTF-8"));@