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/utf-8 (Set source and execution character sets to UTF-8)

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Specifies both the source character set and the execution character set as UTF-8.

Syntax

/utf-8

Remarks

You can use the /utf-8 option to specify both the source and execution character sets as encoded by using UTF-8. It's equivalent to specifying /source-charset:utf-8 /execution-charset:utf-8 on the command line. Any of these options also enables the /validate-charset option by default. For a list of supported code page identifiers and character set names, see Code Page Identifiers.

By default, Visual Studio detects a byte-order mark to determine if the source file is in an encoded Unicode format, for example, UTF-16 or UTF-8. If no byte-order mark is found, it assumes that the source file is encoded in the current user code page, unless you've specified a code page by using /utf-8 or the /source-charset option. Visual Studio allows you to save your C++ source code in any of several character encodings. For information about source and execution character sets, see Character sets in the language documentation.

Set the option in Visual Studio or programmatically

To set this compiler option in the Visual Studio development environment

  1. Open the project Property Pages dialog box. For more information, see Set C++ compiler and build properties in Visual Studio.

  2. Select the Configuration Properties > C/C++ > Command Line property page.

  3. In Additional Options, add the /utf-8 option to specify your preferred encoding.

  4. Choose OK to save your changes.

To set this compiler option programmatically

See also

MSVC compiler options
MSVC compiler command-line syntax
/execution-charset (Set execution character set)
/source-charset (Set source character set)
/validate-charset (Validate for compatible characters)