wcstombs(3) Library Functions Manual wcstombs(3)
NAME
wcstombs - convert a wide-character string to a multibyte string
LIBRARY
Standard C library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>
size_t wcstombs(char dest[restrict .n], const wchar_t *restrict src,
size_t n);
DESCRIPTION
If dest is not NULL, the wcstombs() function converts the wide-charac-
ter string src to a multibyte string starting at dest. At most n bytes
are written to dest. The sequence of characters placed in dest begins
in the initial shift state. The conversion can stop for three reasons:
• A wide character has been encountered that can not be represented as
a multibyte sequence (according to the current locale). In this
case, (size_t) -1 is returned.
• The length limit forces a stop. In this case, the number of bytes
written to dest is returned, but the shift state at this point is
lost.
• The wide-character string has been completely converted, including
the terminating null wide character (L'\0'). In this case, the con-
version ends in the initial shift state. The number of bytes writ-
ten to dest, excluding the terminating null byte ('\0'), is re-
turned.
The programmer must ensure that there is room for at least n bytes at
dest.
If dest is NULL, n is ignored, and the conversion proceeds as above,
except that the converted bytes are not written out to memory, and no
length limit exists.
In order to avoid the case 2 above, the programmer should make sure n
is greater than or equal to wcstombs(NULL,src,0)+1.
RETURN VALUE
The wcstombs() function returns the number of bytes that make up the
converted part of a multibyte sequence, not including the terminating
null byte. If a wide character was encountered which could not be con-
verted, (size_t) -1 is returned.
ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see at-
tributes(7).
┌────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
│Interface │ Attribute │ Value │
├────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
│wcstombs() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘
STANDARDS
POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, C99.
NOTES
The behavior of wcstombs() depends on the LC_CTYPE category of the cur-
rent locale.
The function wcsrtombs(3) provides a better interface to the same func-
tionality.
SEE ALSO
mblen(3), mbstowcs(3), mbtowc(3), wcsrtombs(3), wctomb(3)
Linux man-pages 6.03 2023-02-05 wcstombs(3)
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