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'\0'.  In this case the conversion
       ends in the initial state.  The number of bytes written to dest, excluding the terminating '\0' 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)