xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/locale/mbrtowc.3 (revision d65511ddb3ab36b1a8af29335756468e51c7cda2)
1.\" $NetBSD: mbrtowc.3,v 1.8 2006/10/16 09:10:29 wiz Exp $
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27.Dd February 4, 2002
28.Dt MBRTOWC 3
29.Os
30.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm mbrtowc
33.Nd converts a multibyte character to a wide character (restartable)
34.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
35.Sh LIBRARY
36.Lb libc
37.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.In wchar.h
40.Ft size_t
41.Fn mbrtowc "wchar_t * restrict pwc" "const char * restrict s" "size_t n" \
42"mbstate_t * restrict ps"
43.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45The
46.Fn mbrtowc
47usually converts the multibyte character pointed to by
48.Fa s
49to a wide character, and stores the wide character
50to the wchar_t object pointed to by
51.Fa pwc
52if
53.Fa pwc
54is
55.Pf non- Dv NULL
56and
57.Fa s
58points to a valid character.
59The conversion happens in accordance with, and changes the conversion
60state described in the mbstate_t object pointed to by
61.Fa ps .
62This function may examine at most
63.Fa n
64bytes of the array beginning from
65.Fa s .
66.Pp
67If
68.Fa s
69points to a valid character and the character corresponds to a nul wide
70character, then the
71.Fn mbrtowc
72places the mbstate_t object pointed to by
73.Fa ps
74to an initial conversion state.
75.Pp
76Unlike
77.Xr mbtowc 3 ,
78the
79.Fn mbrtowc
80may accept the byte sequence pointed to by
81.Fa s
82not forming a complete multibyte character
83but which may be part of a valid character.
84In this case, this function will accept all such bytes
85and save them into the conversion state object pointed to by
86.Fa ps .
87They will be used at subsequent calls of this function to restart
88the conversion suspended.
89.Pp
90The behaviour of
91.Fn mbrtowc
92is affected by the
93.Dv LC_CTYPE
94category of the current locale.
95.Pp
96These are the special cases:
97.Bl -tag -width 012345678901
98.It "s == NULL"
99.Fn mbrtowc
100sets the conversion state object pointed to by
101.Fa ps
102to an initial state and always returns 0.
103Unlike
104.Xr mbtowc 3 ,
105the value returned does not indicate whether the current encoding of
106the locale is state-dependent.
107.Pp
108In this case,
109.Fn mbrtowc
110ignores
111.Fa pwc
112and
113.Fa n ,
114and is equivalent to the following call:
115.Bd -literal -offset indent
116mbrtowc(NULL, "", 1, ps);
117.Ed
118.It "pwc == NULL"
119The conversion from a multibyte character to a wide character has
120taken place and the conversion state may be affected, but the resulting
121wide character is discarded.
122.It "ps == NULL"
123.Fn mbrtowc
124uses its own internal state object to keep the conversion state,
125instead of
126.Fa ps
127mentioned in this manual page.
128.Pp
129Calling any other functions in
130.Lb libc
131never changes the internal state of
132.Fn mbrtowc ,
133which is initialized at startup time of the program.
134.El
135.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
136.Sh RETURN VALUES
137In the usual cases,
138.Fn mbrtowc
139returns:
140.Bl -tag -width 012345678901
141.It 0
142The next bytes pointed to by
143.Fa s
144form a nul character.
145.It positive
146If
147.Fa s
148points to a valid character,
149.Fn mbrtowc
150returns the number of bytes in the character.
151.It (size_t)-2
152.Fa s
153points to a byte sequence which possibly contains part of a valid
154multibyte character, but which is incomplete.
155When
156.Fa n
157is at least
158.Dv MB_CUR_MAX ,
159this case can only occur if the array pointed to by
160.Fa s
161contains a redundant shift sequence.
162.It (size_t)-1
163.Fa s
164points to an illegal byte sequence which does not form a valid multibyte
165character.
166In this case,
167.Fn mbrtowc
168sets
169.Va errno
170to indicate the error.
171.El
172.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
173.Sh ERRORS
174.Fn mbrtowc
175may cause an error in the following case:
176.Bl -tag -width Er
177.It Bq Er EILSEQ
178.Fa s
179points to an invalid or incomplete multibyte character.
180.It Bq Er EINVAL
181.Fa ps
182points to an invalid or uninitialized mbstate_t object.
183.El
184.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
185.Sh SEE ALSO
186.Xr mbrlen 3 ,
187.Xr mbtowc 3 ,
188.Xr setlocale 3
189.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
190.Sh STANDARDS
191The
192.Fn mbrtowc
193function conforms to
194.St -isoC-amd1 .
195The restrict qualifier is added at
196.St -isoC-99 .
197