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MBSTOWCS(3) Linux Programmer's Manual MBSTOWCS(3) NAME mbstowcs - convert a multibyte string to a wide-character string SYNOPSIS #include <stdlib.h> size_t mbstowcs(wchar_t *dest, const char *src, size_t n); DESCRIPTION If dest is not a NULL pointer, the mbstowcs() function converts the multibyte string src to a wide-character string starting at dest. At most n wide characters are written to dest. The conversion starts in the initial state. The conversion can stop for three reasons: 1. An invalid multibyte sequence has been encountered. In this case (size_t)(-1) is returned. 2. n non-L'\0' wide characters have been stored at dest. In this case the number of wide characters written to dest is returned, but the shift state at this point is lost. 3. The multibyte string has been completely converted, including the terminating '\0'. In this case the number of wide characters written to dest, excluding the terminating L'\0' character, is returned. The programmer must ensure that there is room for at least n wide char- acters at dest. If dest is NULL, n is ignored, and the conversion proceeds as above, except that the converted wide characters are not written out to mem- ory, 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 mbstowcs(NULL,src,0)+1. RETURN VALUE The mbstowcs() function returns the number of wide characters that make up the converted part of the wide-character string, not including the terminating null wide character. If an invalid multibyte sequence was encountered, (size_t)(-1) is returned. CONFORMING TO C99 NOTES The behavior of mbstowcs() depends on the LC_CTYPE category of the cur- rent locale. The function mbsrtowcs(3) provides a better interface to the same func- tionality. SEE ALSO mbsrtowcs(3) GNU 1999-07-25 MBSTOWCS(3)