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 con
verts 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 characters 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 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 mbstowcs(NULL,src,0)+1.
RETURN VALUE
The mbstowcs function returns the number of wide charac
ters 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
ISO/ANSI C, UNIX98
SEE ALSO
mbsrtowcs(3)
NOTES
The behaviour of mbstowcs depends on the LC_CTYPE category
The function mbsrtowcs provides a better interface to the
same functionality.
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