Byte Indices

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Use the following tips:

• Working with a bytewise index into a string presents problems similar to those posed by pointer manipulation. Consider this example, which scans a string for a backslash character:

  while ( rgch[ i ] != '\\' )
      i++;
  

  This may index a trail byte, not a lead byte, and thus it may not point to a character.

• Use the _mbslen function to solve the preceding problem:

  while ( rgch[ i ] != '\\' )
      i += _mbslen( rgch + i );
  

  This correctly indexes to a lead byte, hence to a character. The _mbslen function determines the size of a character (one or two bytes).

See Also   The Last Character in a String