MBSTOWCS(3) Linux Programmer's Manual MBSTOWCS(3)NAMEmbstowcs - convert a multibyte string to a wide-character string
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>
size_t mbstowcs(wchar_t *dest, const char *src, size_t n);
DESCRIPTION
If dest is not a NULL pointer, the mbstowcs() function converts the
multibyte string src to a wide-character string starting at dest. At
most n wide characters are written to dest. The conversion starts in
the initial state. The conversion can stop for three reasons:
1. An invalid multibyte sequence has been encountered. In this case
(size_t) -1 is returned.
2. n non-L'\0' wide characters have been stored at dest. In this case
the number of wide characters written to dest is returned, but the
shift state at this point is lost.
3. The multibyte string has been completely converted, including the
terminating null wide character ('\0'). In this case the number of
wide characters written to dest, excluding the terminating null wide
character, is returned.
The programmer must ensure that there is room for at least n wide char‐
acters at dest.
If dest is NULL, n is ignored, and the conversion proceeds as above,
except that the converted wide characters are not written out to mem‐
ory, and that no length limit exists.
In order to avoid the case 2 above, the programmer should make sure n
is greater or equal to mbstowcs(NULL,src,0)+1.
RETURN VALUE
The mbstowcs() function returns the number of wide characters that make
up the converted part of the wide-character string, not including the
terminating null wide character. If an invalid multibyte sequence was
encountered, (size_t) -1 is returned.
CONFORMING TO
C99.
NOTES
The behavior of mbstowcs() depends on the LC_CTYPE category of the cur‐
rent locale.
The function mbsrtowcs(3) provides a better interface to the same func‐
tionality.
SEE ALSOmbsrtowcs(3), wcstombs(3)COLOPHON
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description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
GNU 2011-09-28 MBSTOWCS(3)