WCTOMB(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
wctomb - convert a wide-character code to a character

SYNOPSIS

#include <stdlib.h>

int wctomb(char *s, wchar_t wchar);

DESCRIPTION

The wctomb() function shall determine the number of bytes needed to represent the character corresponding to the wide-character code whose value is wchar (including any change in the shift state). It shall store the character representation (possibly multiple bytes and any special bytes to change shift state) in the array object pointed to by s (if s is not a null pointer). At most {MB_CUR_MAX} bytes shall be stored. If wchar is 0, a null byte shall be stored, preceded by any shift sequence needed to restore the initial shift state, and wctomb() shall be left in the initial shift state.

The behavior of this function is affected by the LC_CTYPE category of the current locale. For a state-dependent encoding, this function shall be placed into its initial state by a call for which its character pointer argument, s, is a null pointer. Subsequent calls with s as other than a null pointer shall cause the internal state of the function to be altered as necessary. A call with s as a null pointer shall cause this function to return a non-zero value if encodings have state dependency, and 0 otherwise. Changing the LC_CTYPE category causes the shift state of this function to be unspecified.

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

The implementation shall behave as if no function defined in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 calls wctomb().

RETURN VALUE

If s is a null pointer, wctomb() shall return a non-zero or 0 value, if character encodings, respectively, do or do not have state-dependent encodings. If s is not a null pointer, wctomb() shall return -1 if the value of wchar does not correspond to a valid character, or return the number of bytes that constitute the character corresponding to the value of wchar.

In no case shall the value returned be greater than the value of the {MB_CUR_MAX} macro.

ERRORS

No errors are defined.

The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES

None.

APPLICATION USAGE

None.

RATIONALE

None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

None.

SEE ALSO

mblen(), mbtowc(), mbstowcs(), wcstombs(), 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 .