WCTOMB(3)

NAME
wctomb, wctomb_l - convert a wide character to a multibyte character

SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>
int
wctomb(char * s, wchar_t wchar);
#include <xlocale.h>
int
wctomb_l(char * s, wchar_t wchar, locale_t l);

DESCRIPTION
The functions wctomb() and wctomb_l() convert the wide character wchar to the corresponding multibyte character, and store it in the array pointed to by s. wctomb() and wctomb_l() may store at most MB_CUR_MAX bytes in the array.

In state-dependent encoding, wctomb() and wctomb_l() may store the special sequence to change the conversion state before an actual multibyte character into the array pointed to by s. If wchar is a null wide character (‘\0’), theses functions place its own internal state to an initial conversion state.

Calling any other functions in libc never change the internal state of wctomb() and wctomb_l(), except for calling setlocale(3) with the LC_CTYPE category changed to that of the current locale. Such setlocale(3) calls cause the internal state of this function to be indeterminate.

The behaviour of wctomb() is affected by LC_CTYPE category of the current locale, while the behavior of wctomb_l() depends on the locale provided as parameter, see xlocale(3)

There is a special case:

s == NULL
    wctomb() initializes its own internal state to an initial state, and determines whether the current encoding is state-dependent. This function returns 0 if the encoding is state-independent, otherwise non-zero. In this case, wchar is completely ignored.

RETURN VALUES
Normally, wctomb() returns:

positive
    Number of bytes for the valid multibyte character pointed to by s. There are no cases where the value returned is greater than the value of the MB_CUR_MAX macro.

-1  wchar is an invalid wide character.

If s is equal to NULL, wctomb() returns:

0   The current encoding is state-independent.

non-zero
    The current encoding is state-dependent.

ERRORS
No errors are defined.

SEE ALSO
setlocale(3), xlocale(3)

STANDARDS
The wctomb() function conforms to ansiC.