WCSTOMBS(3) Linux Programmer's Manual WCSTOMBS(3)
NAME
wcstombs - convert a wide-character string to a multibyte string
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>
size_t wcstombs(char *dest, const wchar_t *src, size_t n);
DESCRIPTION
If dest is not a NULL pointer, the wcstombs() function converts the wide-character string src to a multibyte string starting at dest. At
most n bytes are written to dest. The conversion starts in the initial state. The conversion can stop for three reasons:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. The wide-character string has been completely converted, including the terminating L' '. In this case the conversion ends in the ini-
tial state. The number of bytes written to dest, excluding the terminating ' ' byte, is returned.
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
that no length limit exists.
In order to avoid the case 2 above, the programmer should make sure n is greater 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 multibyte sequence, not including the terminating
null byte. If a wide character was encountered which could not be converted, (size_t) -1 is returned.
CONFORMING TO
C99.
NOTES
The behavior of wcstombs() depends on the LC_CTYPE category of the current locale.
The function wcsrtombs(3) provides a thread safe interface to the same functionality.
SEE ALSO
wcsrtombs(3)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.25 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
GNU
1999-07-25 WCSTOMBS(3)
