std::filesystem::path::c_str, std::filesystem::path::native, std::filesystem::path::operator string_type()

From cppreference.com
< cpplrm; | filesystemlrm; | path
const value_type* c_str() const noexcept;
(1) (since C++17)
const string_type& native() const noexcept;
(2) (since C++17)
operator string_type() const;
(3) (since C++17)

Accesses the native path name as a character string.

1) Equivalent to native().c_str().
2) Returns the native-format representation of the pathname by reference.
3) Returns the native-format representation of the pathname by value.

Parameters

(none)

Return value

The native string representation of the pathname, using native syntax, native character type, and native character encoding. This string is suitable for use with OS APIs.

Notes

The conversion function (3) is provided so that APIs that accept std::basic_string file names can use pathnames with no changes to code.

Example

#include <cstdio>
#ifdef _MSC_VER
#include <io.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#else
#include <locale>
#include <clocale>
#endif
#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
#include <filesystem>
namespace fs = std::filesystem;

int main()
{
#ifdef _MSC_VER
    _setmode(_fileno(stderr), _O_WTEXT);
#else
    std::setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
    std::locale::global(std::locale(""));
    std::cout.imbue(std::locale());
    std::wcerr.imbue(std::locale());
#endif

    fs::path p = fs::u8path(u8".txt");
    std::ofstream(p) << "File contents"; // Prior to LWG2676 uses operator string_type()
                                         // on MSVC, where string_type is wstring, only
                                         // works due to non-standard extension.
                                         // Post-LWG2676 uses new fstream constructors

    // native string representation can be used with OS APIs
    if (std::FILE* f =
#ifdef _MSC_VER
                _wfopen(p.c_str(), L"r")
#else
                std::fopen(p.c_str(), "r")
#endif
        )
    {
        int ch;
        while((ch=fgetc(f))!= EOF) putchar(ch);
        std::fclose(f);
    }

    // multibyte and wide representation can be used for output
    std::cout << "\nFile name in narrow multibyte encoding: " << p.string() << '\n';
    std::wcerr << "File name in wide encoding: " << p.wstring() << '\n';

    fs::remove(p);
}

Output:

File contents
File name in narrow multibyte encoding: .txt
File name in wide encoding: .txt

See also

returns the path in native pathname format converted to a string
(public member function)
returns the path in generic pathname format converted to a string
(public member function)