WCSTOMBS(3P)

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
wcstombs - convert a wide-character string to a character string

SYNOPSIS

#include <stdlib.h>

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

DESCRIPTION

The wcstombs() function shall convert the sequence of wide-character codes that are in the array pointed to by pwcs into a sequence of characters that begins in the initial shift state and store these characters into the array pointed to by s, stopping if a character would exceed the limit of n total bytes or if a null byte is stored. Each wide-character code shall be converted as if by a call to wctomb(), except that the shift state of wctomb() shall not be affected.

The behavior of this function shall be affected by the LC_CTYPE category of the current locale.

No more than n bytes shall be modified in the array pointed to by s. If copying takes place between objects that overlap, the behavior is undefined. If s is a null pointer, wcstombs() shall return the length required to convert the entire array regardless of the value of n, but no values are stored.

The wcstombs() function need not be reentrant. A function that is not required to be reentrant is not required to be thread-safe.

RETURN VALUE

If a wide-character code is encountered that does not correspond to a valid character (of one or more bytes each), wcstombs() shall return (size_t)-1. Otherwise, wcstombs() shall return the number of bytes stored in the character array, not including any terminating null byte. The array shall not be null-terminated if the value returned is n.

ERRORS

The wcstombs() function may fail if:

EILSEQ
    A wide-character code does not correspond to a valid character.

The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES

None.

APPLICATION USAGE

None.

RATIONALE

None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

None.

SEE ALSO

mblen(), mbtowc(), mbstowcs(), wctomb(), 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 .