ASCII character problem on mac. Can't print the black square(which is char(219))

When I'm trying to do this code in C++

cout << char(219);

the output on my mac is question mark ? However, on PC it gives me a black square. Does anyone have any idea why on mac there is only 128 characters, when it should be 256? Thanks 开发者_运维知识库for your help.

There's no such thing as ASCII character 219. ASCII only goes up to 127. chars 128-255 are defined in different ways in different character encodings for different languages and different OSs.

• MacRoman defines it as €.
• IBM code page 437 (used at the Windows command prompt) defines it as █.
• Windows code page 1252 (used in Windows GUI programs) defines it as Û.
• UTF-8 defines it as a part of a 2-byte character. (Specifically, the lead byte of the characters U+06C0 to U+06FF.)

ASCII is really a 7-bit encoding. If you are printing char(219) that is using some other encoding: on Windows most probably CP 1252. On Mac, I have no idea...

When a character is missing from an encoding set, it shows a box on Windows (it's not character 219, which doesn't exist) Macs show the question mark in a diamond symbol because a designer wanted it that way. But they both mean the same thing, missing/invalid character.