NAME

wctomb - convert a wide-character code to a character

SYNOPSIS

#include <stdlib.h>

int wctomb(char *s, wchar_t wchar);


DESCRIPTION

^[CX] The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the ISO C standard. Any conflict between the requirements described here and the ISO C standard is unintentional. This volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 defers to the ISO C standard.

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.

^[CX] 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.

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>

CHANGE HISTORY

First released in Issue 4. Derived from the ANSI C standard.

Issue 6

Extensions beyond the ISO C standard are marked.

In the DESCRIPTION, a note about reentrancy and thread-safety is added.