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 a NULL pointer, the wcstombs function con
verts 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 cur
rent 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 con
verted, including the terminating L'\0'. In this case the
conversion ends in the initial state. The number of bytes
written to dest, excluding the terminating '\0' byte, 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 converted bytes 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 wcstombs(NULL,src,0)+1.
RETURN VALUE
The wcstombs function returns the number of bytes that
make up the converted part of 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
ISO/ANSI C, UNIX98
SEE ALSO
wcsrtombs(3)
The behaviour of wcstombs depends on the LC_CTYPE category
of the current locale.
The function wcsrtombs provides a thread safe interface to
the same functionality.
Man(1) output converted with
man2html