Decision Workspace
wchar vs nt-string vs widestring
Side-by-side comparison of Rust crates
45
wchar
growingv0.11.1
Procedural macros for compile time UTF-16 and UTF-32 wide strings.
65
nt-string
growingv0.1.2
Idiomatic Rust implementations for various Windows string types
62
widestring
growingv1.2.1
A wide string Rust library for converting to and from wide strings, such as those often used in Windows API or other FFI libaries. Both `u16` and `u32` string types are provided, including support for UTF-16 and UTF-32, malformed encoding, C-style strings, etc.
Core Metrics
| wchar | nt-string | widestring | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health Score | 45 | 65 | 62 |
| Total Downloads | 1.1M | 290.7K | 81.0M |
| 30d Downloads | 22.1K | 16.2K | 5.1M |
| Dependents | 30 | 35 | 2.6K |
| Releases | 13 | 3 | 18 |
| Last Updated | 696d ago | 9d ago | 229d ago |
| Age | 7y 11m | 2y 12m | 10y 4m |
Health Breakdown
wchar
Maintenance
4
Quality
13
Community
9
Popularity
7
Documentation
12
nt-string
Maintenance
16
Quality
17
Community
10
Popularity
7
Documentation
15
widestring
Maintenance
8
Quality
19
Community
15
Popularity
8
Documentation
12
Technical Details
| wchar | nt-string | widestring | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Version | 0.11.1 | 0.1.2 | 1.2.1 |
| Stable (≥1.0) | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| License | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| Dependencies | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Crate Size | 15KB | 66KB | 90KB |
| Features | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Yanked % | 7.7% | 0.0% | 5.6% |
| Edition | 2018 | 2021 | 2021 |
| MSRV | — | 1.58 | 1.58 |
| Owners | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Links
Quick Verdict
- •nt-string leads with a health score of 65/100, but none of the options score above 80.
- •widestring has the most downloads (81.0M), suggesting wider adoption.
- •widestring is depended on by 2.6K crates — strongest ecosystem trust.
- •⚠ wchar has not been updated in over a year.
- •wchar, nt-string are pre-1.0 — API may change.