xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/locale/mblen.3 (revision f3cfa6f6ce31685c6c4a758bc430e69eb99f50a4)
1.\" $NetBSD: mblen.3,v 1.6 2006/10/14 07:51:01 wiz Exp $
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27.Dd February 3, 2002
28.Dt MBLEN 3
29.Os
30.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm mblen
33.Nd get number of bytes in a multibyte character
34.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
35.Sh LIBRARY
36.Lb libc
37.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.In stdlib.h
40.Ft int
41.Fn mblen "const char *s" "size_t n"
42.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Fn mblen
46function usually determines the number of bytes in
47a multibyte character pointed to by
48.Fa s
49and returns it.
50This function shall only examine max n bytes of the array beginning from
51.Fa s .
52.Pp
53In state-dependent encodings,
54.Fa s
55may point the special sequence bytes to change the shift-state.
56Although such sequence bytes corresponds to no individual
57wide-character code,
58the
59.Fn mblen
60changes the own state by them and treats them
61as if they are a part of the subsequent multibyte character.
62.Pp
63Unlike
64.Xr mbrlen 3 ,
65the first
66.Fa n
67bytes pointed to by
68.Fa s
69need to form an entire multibyte character.
70Otherwise, this function causes an error.
71.Pp
72.Fn mblen
73is equivalent to the following call, except the internal state of the
74.Xr mbtowc 3
75function is not affected:
76.Bd -literal -offset indent
77mbtowc(NULL, s, n);
78.Ed
79.Pp
80Calling any other functions in
81.Lb libc
82never changes the internal
83state of
84.Fn mblen ,
85except for calling
86.Xr setlocale 3
87with the
88.Dv LC_CTYPE
89category changed to that of the current locale.
90Such
91.Xr setlocale 3
92calls cause the internal state of this function to be indeterminate.
93.Pp
94The behaviour of
95.Fn mblen
96is affected by the
97.Dv LC_CTYPE
98category of the current locale.
99.Pp
100These are the special cases:
101.Bl -tag -width 0123456789
102.It "s == NULL"
103.Fn mblen
104initializes its own internal state to an initial state, and
105determines whether the current encoding is state-dependent.
106This function returns 0 if the encoding is state-independent,
107otherwise non-zero.
108.It "n == 0"
109In this case,
110the first
111.Fa n
112bytes of the array pointed to by
113.Fa s
114never form a complete character.
115Thus,
116.Fn mblen
117always fails.
118.El
119.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
120.Sh RETURN VALUES
121Normally,
122.Fn mblen
123returns:
124.Bl -tag -width 0123456789
125.It "0"
126.Fa s
127points to a nul byte
128.Pq Sq \e0 .
129.It "positive"
130The value returned is
131a number of bytes for the valid multibyte character pointed to by
132.Fa s .
133There are no cases that this value is greater than
134.Fa n
135or the value of the
136.Dv MB_CUR_MAX
137macro.
138.It "-1"
139.Fa s
140points to an invalid or incomplete multibyte character.
141The
142.Fn mblen
143also sets
144.Va errno
145to indicate the error.
146.El
147.Pp
148When
149.Fa s
150is equal to
151.Dv NULL ,
152the
153.Fn mblen
154returns:
155.Bl -tag -width 0123456789
156.It "0"
157The current encoding is state-independent.
158.It "non-zero"
159The current encoding is state-dependent.
160.El
161.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
162.Sh ERRORS
163.Fn mblen
164may cause an error in the following case:
165.Bl -tag -width Er
166.It Bq Er EILSEQ
167.Fa s
168points to an invalid or incomplete multibyte character.
169.El
170.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
171.Sh SEE ALSO
172.Xr mbrlen 3 ,
173.Xr mbtowc 3 ,
174.Xr setlocale 3
175.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
176.Sh STANDARDS
177The
178.Fn mblen
179function conforms to
180.St -ansiC .
181