| Platform SDK: International Features |
The world's character-based data was developed using both Unicode and traditional character sets. Because of this, the Microsoft® Win32® API provides character-set functions that help Win32-based applications convert the character-based data from its original character set to Unicode or another traditional character set. These character-set functions also help Win32-based applications create character-based data that can be transferred to and used on any operating system, including those that do not support Unicode.
For details about Unicode beyond the scope of this overview, see The Unicode Standard: Worldwide Character Encoding, version 2.0, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
This section provides detailed reference information for the character set functions, structures, and messages.
This section covers the following topics.