# std::filesystem::path::string, std::filesystem::path::wstring, std::filesystem::path::u8string

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< cpp‎ | filesystem‎ | path

template< class CharT, class Traits = std::char_traits<CharT> class Alloc = std::allocator<CharT> > std::basic_string<CharT,Traits,Alloc> string( const Alloc& a = Allocator() ) const; | (1) | (since C++17)
| (2) | (since C++17)
std::string string() const; |  |
std::wstring wstring() const; |  |
std::string u8string() const; |  |
std::u16string u16string() const; |  |
std::u32string u32string() const; |  |

Returns the internal pathname in native pathname format, converted to specific string type. Conversion, if any, is performed as follows:

- If `path::value_type` is char, conversion, if any, is system-dependent. This is the case on typical POSIX systems (such as Linux), where native encoding is UTF-8 and `string()` performs no conversion.
- Otherwise, if `path::value_type` is wchar_t, conversion, if any, is unspecified. This is the case on Windows, where wchar_t is 16 bit and the native encoding is UTF-16.
- Otherwise, if `path::value_type` is char16_t, native encoding is UTF-16 and the conversion method is unspecified.
- Otherwise, if `path::value_type` is char32_t, native encoding is UTF-32 and the conversion method is unspecified.

1) All memory allocations are performed by `a`.
2) The result encoding in the case of `u8string()` is always UTF-8.

### Parameters

(none)

### Return value

The internal pathname in native pathname format, converted to specified string type.

### Exceptions

(none)

### Example

Run this code

    #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"要らない.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: 要らない.txt
    File name in wide encoding: 要らない.txt

### See also

generic_string generic_wstring generic_u8string generic_u16string generic_u32string | returns the path in generic pathname format converted to a string (public member function)

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