title: Storing unicode UTF-8 string in std::string
body: <p>In response to discussion in </p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4169948/cross-platform-strings-and-unicode-in-c">Cross-platform strings (and Unicode) in C++</a></p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2722951/how-to-deal-with-unicode-strings-in-c-c-in-a-cross-platform-friendly-way">How to deal with Unicode strings in C/C++ in a cross-platform friendly way?</a></p>
  
  <p>I'm trying to assign a <code>UTF-8</code> string to a <code>std::string</code> variable in <code>Visual Studio 2010</code> environment</p>
  
  <p><code>std::string msg = "महसुस";</code></p>
  
  <p>However, when I view the string view debugger, I only see "?????"
  I have the file saved as Unicode (UTF-8 with Signature)
  and i'm using character set "use unicode character set"</p>
  
  <p>"महसुस" is a nepali language and it contains 5 characters and will occupy 15 bytes. But visual studio debugger shows msg size as 5</p>
  
  <p>My question is:</p>
  
  <p><strong>How do I use std::string to just store the utf-8 without needing to manipulate it</strong>?</p>