MBSTOWCS

Section: POSIX Programmer's Manual (3P)
Updated: 2003
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PROLOG

This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.  

NAME

mbstowcs - convert a character string to a wide-character string  

SYNOPSIS

#include <stdlib.h>

size_t mbstowcs(wchar_t *restrict pwcs, const char *restrict s,
       size_t n);
 

DESCRIPTION

The mbstowcs() function shall convert a sequence of characters that begins in the initial shift state from the array pointed to by s into a sequence of corresponding wide-character codes and shall store not more than n wide-character codes into the array pointed to by pwcs. No characters that follow a null byte (which is converted into a wide-character code with value 0) shall be examined or converted. Each character shall be converted as if by a call to mbtowc(), except that the shift state of mbtowc() is not affected.

No more than n elements shall be modified in the array pointed to by pwcs. If copying takes place between objects that overlap, the behavior is undefined.

The behavior of this function shall be affected by the LC_CTYPE category of the current locale. If pwcs is a null pointer, mbstowcs() shall return the length required to convert the entire array regardless of the value of n, but no values are stored.  

RETURN VALUE

If an invalid character is encountered, mbstowcs() shall return (size_t)-1 and may set errno to indicate the error.

Otherwise, mbstowcs() shall return the number of the array elements modified (or required if pwcs is null), not including a terminating 0 code, if any. The array shall not be zero-terminated if the value returned is n.  

ERRORS

The mbstowcs() function may fail if:

EILSEQ
Invalid byte sequence is detected.

The following sections are informative.  

EXAMPLES

None.  

APPLICATION USAGE

None.  

RATIONALE

None.  

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

None.  

SEE ALSO

mblen(), mbtowc(), wctomb(), wcstombs(), the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <stdlib.h>  

COPYRIGHT

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .