How to print root symbol with c in a file

Question

I have a file named output.txt and i want to print in a root (√) symbol in it. Here is my program

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
void main(void)
{
    FILE *fptr;     
    fptr = fopen("output.txt","w+"); //open the file to write 
    fprintf(fptr,"\xfb");            // \xfb is the hexadecimal code for root symbol
    fclose(fptr);
}

but when i run the program (û) is printed in it

Answer 1

The problem you are encountering is because you are attempting to use part of the extended ASCII set (ie: characters above 127 in value). The code page is something you set so that if the MSB of an 8-bit ASCII symbol is set, it can map to one of many different code pages depending on region/locale, OS, etc (ie: Greek, Latin, etc). In most cases, ASCII characters are generally considered to be 7-bit, ignoring the code page enable bit.

Attempting to use extended ASCII is not a portable approach, so your best alternative is to:

1. Make use of unicode
2. Make sure your C compiler is C99 compliant.

The following example resolves the original problem.

Source Code

---

#include <stdio.h>

void main(void) {
    FILE *fptr;     
    fptr = fopen("output.txt","w+"); //open the file to write 
    fprintf(fptr, "\u221A\n");
    fclose(fptr);
}

Output from Sample Run

---

√

References

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1. How to print Extended ASCII characters 127 to 160 in through a C program?, Accessed 2014-04-16, <https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16359225/how-to-print-extended-ascii-characters-127-to-160-in-through-a-c-program>
2. Unicode Character 'SQUARE ROOT' (U+221A), Accessed 2014-04-16, <http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/221a/index.htm>