Convert Swift String to wchar_t - swift

Question

For context: I'm trying to use the very handy LibXL. I've used it with success in Obj-C and C++ but am now trying to port over to Swift. In order to better support Unicode, I need to sent all strings to the LibXL api as wchar_t*.
So, for this purpose I've cobbled together this code:
extension String {
///Function to convert a String into a wchar_t buffer.
///Don't forget to free the buffer!
var wideChar: UnsafeMutablePointer<wchar_t>? {
get {
guard let _cString = self.cString(using: .utf16) else {
return nil
}
let buffer = UnsafeMutablePointer<wchar_t>.allocate(capacity: _cString.count)
memcpy(buffer, _cString, _cString.count)
return buffer
}
}
The calls to LibXL appear to be working (getting a print of the error messages returns 'Ok'). Except when I try to actually write to a cell in a test spreadsheet. I get can't write row 0 in trial version:
if let name = "John Doe".wideChar, let passKey = "mac-f.....lots of characters...3".wideChar {
xlBookSetKeyW(book, name, passKey)
print(">: " + String.init(cString: xlBookErrorMessageW(book)))
}
if let sheetName = "Output".wideChar, let path = savePath.wideChar, let test = "Hello".wideChar {
let sheet: SheetHandle = xlBookAddSheetW(book, sheetName, nil)
xlSheetWriteStrW(sheet, 0, 0, test, sectionTitleFormat)
print(">: " + String.init(cString: xlBookErrorMessageW(book)))
let success = xlBookSaveW(book, path)
dump(success)
print(">: " + String.init(cString: xlBookErrorMessageW(book)))
}
I'm presuming that my code for converting to wchar_t* is incorrect. Can someone point me in the right direction for that..?
ADDENDUM: Thanks to #MartinR for the answer. It appears that the block 'consumes' any pointers that are used in it. So, for example, when writing a string using
("Hello".withWideChars({ wCharacters in
xlSheetWriteStrW(newSheet, destRow, destColumn, wCharacters, aFormatHandle)
})
The aFormatHandle will become invalid after the writeStr line executes and isn't re-useable. It's necessary to create a new FormatHandle for each write command.

Answer 1

There are different problems here. First, String.cString(using:) does
not work well with multi-byte encodings:
print("ABC".cString(using: .utf16)!)
// [65, 0] ???
Second, wchar_t contains UTF-32 code points, not UTF-16.
Finally, in
let buffer = UnsafeMutablePointer<wchar_t>.allocate(capacity: _cString.count)
memcpy(buffer, _cString, _cString.count)
the allocation size does not include the trailing null character,
and the copy copies _cString.count bytes, not characters.
All that can be fixed, but I would suggest a different API
(similar to the String.withCString(_:) method):
extension String {
/// Calls the given closure with a pointer to the contents of the string,
/// represented as a null-terminated wchar_t array.
func withWideChars<Result>(_ body: (UnsafePointer<wchar_t>) -> Result) -> Result {
let u32 = self.unicodeScalars.map { wchar_t(bitPattern: $0.value) } + [0]
return u32.withUnsafeBufferPointer { body($0.baseAddress!) }
}
}
which can then be used like
let name = "John Doe"
let passKey = "secret"
name.withWideChars { wname in
passKey.withWideChars { wpass in
xlBookSetKeyW(book, wname, wpass)
}
}
and the clean-up is automatic.