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 NULL, 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 null
       wide character (L'\0').  In this case, the conversion ends in the initial state.  The num‐
       ber of bytes written to dest, excluding the terminating null byte ('\0'), 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 con‐
       verted bytes are not written out to memory, and no length limit exists.

       In order to avoid the case 2 above, the programmer should make sure n is greater  than  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 a
       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
       mblen(3), mbtowc(3), mbstowcs(3), wcsrtombs(3) wctom(3)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.74 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the
       project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of  this  page,  can  be
       found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



GNU                                         2014-03-18                                WCSTOMBS(3)