.\" Copyright (c) 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" Donn Seeley of BSDI. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)multibyte.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 .\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/locale/multibyte.3,v 1.6.2.5 2001/12/14 18:33:54 ru Exp $ .\" .Dd June 4, 1993 .Dt MULTIBYTE 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm mblen , .Nm mbstowcs , .Nm mbtowc , .Nm wcstombs , .Nm wctomb .Nd multibyte character support for C .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In stdlib.h .Ft int .Fn mblen "const char *mbchar" "size_t nbytes" .Ft size_t .Fn mbstowcs "wchar_t *wcstring" "const char *mbstring" "size_t nwchars" .Ft int .Fn mbtowc "wchar_t *wcharp" "const char *mbchar" "size_t nbytes" .Ft size_t .Fn wcstombs "char *mbstring" "const wchar_t *wcstring" "size_t nbytes" .Ft int .Fn wctomb "char *mbchar" "wchar_t wchar" .Sh DESCRIPTION The basic elements of some written natural languages such as Chinese cannot be represented uniquely with single C .Va char Ns s . The C standard supports two different ways of dealing with extended natural language encodings, .Em wide characters and .Em multibyte characters. Wide characters are an internal representation which allows each basic element to map to a single object of type .Va wchar_t . Multibyte characters are used for input and output and code each basic element as a sequence of C .Va char Ns s . Individual basic elements may map into one or more (up to .Dv MB_CHAR_MAX ) bytes in a multibyte character. .Pp The current locale .Pq Xr setlocale 3 governs the interpretation of wide and multibyte characters. The locale category .Dv LC_CTYPE specifically controls this interpretation. The .Va wchar_t type is wide enough to hold the largest value in the wide character representations for all locales. .Pp Multibyte strings may contain .Sq shift indicators to switch to and from particular modes within the given representation. If explicit bytes are used to signal shifting, these are not recognized as separate characters but are lumped with a neighboring character. There is always a distinguished .Sq initial shift state. The .Fn mbstowcs and .Fn wcstombs functions assume that multibyte strings are interpreted starting from the initial shift state. The .Fn mblen , .Fn mbtowc and .Fn wctomb functions maintain static shift state internally. A call with a null .Fa mbchar pointer returns nonzero if the current locale requires shift states, zero otherwise; if shift states are required, the shift state is reset to the initial state. The internal shift states are undefined after a call to .Fn setlocale with the .Dv LC_CTYPE or .Dv LC_ALL categories. .Pp For convenience in processing, the wide character with value 0 (the null wide character) is recognized as the wide character string terminator, and the character with value 0 (the null byte) is recognized as the multibyte character string terminator. Null bytes are not permitted within multibyte characters. .Pp The .Fn mblen function computes the length in bytes of a multibyte character .Fa mbchar . Up to .Fa nbytes bytes are examined. .Pp The .Fn mbtowc function converts a multibyte character .Fa mbchar into a wide character and stores the result in the object pointed to by .Fa wcharp . Up to .Fa nbytes bytes are examined. .Pp The .Fn wctomb function converts a wide character .Fa wchar into a multibyte character and stores the result in .Fa mbchar . The object pointed to by .Fa mbchar must be large enough to accommodate the multibyte character. .Pp The .Fn mbstowcs function converts a multibyte character string .Fa mbstring into a wide character string .Fa wcstring . No more than .Fa nwchars wide characters are stored. A terminating null wide character is appended if there is room. .Pp The .Fn wcstombs function converts a wide character string .Fa wcstring into a multibyte character string .Fa mbstring . Up to .Fa nbytes bytes are stored in .Fa mbstring . Partial multibyte characters at the end of the string are not stored. The multibyte character string is null terminated if there is room. .Sh "RETURN VALUES If multibyte characters are not supported in the current locale, all of these functions will return \-1 if characters can be processed, otherwise 0. .Pp If .Fa mbchar is .Dv NULL , the .Fn mblen , .Fn mbtowc and .Fn wctomb functions return nonzero if shift states are supported, zero otherwise. If .Fa mbchar is valid, then these functions return the number of bytes processed in .Fa mbchar , or \-1 if no multibyte character could be recognized or converted. .Pp The .Fn mbstowcs function returns the number of wide characters converted, not counting any terminating null wide character. The .Fn wcstombs function returns the number of bytes converted, not counting any terminating null byte. If any invalid multibyte characters are encountered, both functions return \-1. .Sh "SEE ALSO .Xr mbrune 3 , .Xr rune 3 , .Xr setlocale 3 , .Xr euc 4 , .Xr utf2 4 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn mblen , .Fn mbstowcs , .Fn mbtowc , .Fn wcstombs and .Fn wctomb functions conform to .St -isoC . .Sh BUGS The current implementation does not support shift states.