Edward H. Trager wrote: > > But I still don't see any use in knowing how many > characters are in an UTF-8 > > string, apart the use that I already mentioned: allocating > a buffer for a > > UTF-8 to UTF-32 conversion. > > Well, I know a good use for it: a console or terminal-based > application which displays information using fixed-width > fonts in a tabular form, such as a subset of records from > a database table. To calculate how wide to display each > column, knowing the maximum number of characters in the > strings for each column is a useful starting place.
Well, I am just about to start a time consuming task: fixing an application which was based on the assumption the number of characters in a string was good "starting place" to format tabular text in a fixed width font... You have already explained why this can't work when CJK or other scripts pop in. What you really need for such a thing is a function which computes the "width" of a string in terms of display units, rather than its length in term of characters. _ Marco
