What is the optimal multiplatform way of dealing with Unicode strings under C++?

Same as Adam Rosenfield answer (+1), but I use UTFCPP instead.

I would strongly recommend using UTF-8 internally in your application, using regular old char* or std::string for data storage. For interfacing with APIs that use a different encoding (ASCII, UTF-16, etc.), I'd recommend using libiconv, which is licensed under the LGPL.

Example usage:

class TempWstring
{
public:
  TempWstring(const char *str)
  {
    assert(sUTF8toUTF16 != (iconv_t)-1);
    size_t inBytesLeft = strlen(str);
    size_t outBytesLeft = 2 * (inBytesLeft + 1);  // worst case
    mStr = new char[outBytesLeft];
    char *outBuf = mStr;
    int result = iconv(sUTF8toUTF16, &str, &inBytesLeft, &outBuf, &outBytesLeft);
    assert(result == 0 && inBytesLeft == 0);
  }

  ~TempWstring()
  {
    delete [] mStr;
  }

  const wchar_t *Str() const { return (wchar_t *)mStr; }

  static void Init()
  {
    sUTF8toUTF16 = iconv_open("UTF-16LE", "UTF-8");
    assert(sUTF8toUTF16 != (iconv_t)-1);
  }

  static void Shutdown()
  {
    int err = iconv_close(sUTF8toUTF16);
    assert(err == 0);
  }

private:
  char *mStr;

  static iconv_t sUTF8toUTF16;
};

iconv_t TempWstring::sUTF8toUTF16 = (iconv_t)-1;

// At program startup:
TempWstring::Init();

// At program termination:
TempWstring::Shutdown();

// Now, to convert a UTF-8 string to a UTF-16 string, just do this:
TempWstring x("Entr\xc3\xa9""e");  // "Entrée"
const wchar_t *ws = x.Str();  // valid until x goes out of scope

// A less contrived example:
HWND hwnd = CreateWindowW(L"class name",
                          TempWstring("UTF-8 window title").Str(),
                          dwStyle, x, y, width, height, parent, menu, hInstance, lpParam);