freebsd man page for mblen

MBLEN(3)						   BSD Library Functions Manual 						  MBLEN(3)

NAME
     mblen -- get number of bytes in a character

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <stdlib.h>

     int
     mblen(const char *mbchar, size_t nbytes);

DESCRIPTION
     The mblen() function computes the length in bytes of a multibyte character mbchar according to the current conversion state.  Up to nbytes
     bytes are examined.

     A call with a null mbchar pointer returns nonzero if the current locale requires shift states, zero otherwise; if shift states are required,
     the shift state is reset to the initial state.

RETURN VALUES
     If mbchar is NULL, the mblen() function returns nonzero if shift states are supported, zero otherwise.

     Otherwise, if mbchar is not a null pointer, mblen() either returns 0 if mbchar represents the null wide character, or returns the number of
     bytes processed in mbchar, or returns -1 if no multibyte character could be recognized or converted.  In this case, mblen()'s internal con-
     version state is undefined.

ERRORS
     The mblen() function will fail if:

     [EILSEQ]		An invalid multibyte sequence was detected.

     [EINVAL]		The internal conversion state is not valid.

SEE ALSO
     mbrlen(3), mbtowc(3), multibyte(3)

STANDARDS
     The mblen() function conforms to ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (``ISO C99'').

BSD
								  April 11, 2004							       BSD