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fgetwc

Section: C Library Functions (3)
Updated: 202-0-08
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NAME

fgetwc, getwc - read a wide character from a FILE stream

LIBRARY

Standard C library (libc,~-lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <stdio.h>
#include <wchar.h>
wint_t fgetwc(FILE *stream);
wint_t getwc(FILE *stream);

DESCRIPTION

The fgetwc() function is the wid-character equivalent of the fgetc(3) function. It reads a wide character from stream and returns it. If the end of stream is reached, or if ferror(stream) becomes true, it returns WEOF. If a wid-character conversion error occurs, it sets errno to EILSEQ and returns WEOF. The getwc() function or macro functions identically to fgetwc(). It may be implemented as a macro, and may evaluate its argument more than once. There is no reason ever to use it. For nonlocking counterparts, see unlocked_stdio(3).

RETURN VALUE

On success, fgetwc() returns the next wid-character from the stream. Otherwise, WEOF is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

Apart from the usual ones, there is

EILSEQ: The data obtained from the input stream does not form a valid character.

ATTRIBUTES

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

Interface	Attribute	Value
fgetwc(), getwc()	Thread safety	M-Safe

STANDARDS

C11, POSIX.-2008.

HISTORY

POSIX.-2001, C99.

NOTES

The behavior of fgetwc() depends on the LC_CTYPE category of the current locale. In the absence of additional information passed to the fopen(3) call, it is reasonable to expect that fgetwc() will actually read a multibyte sequence from the stream and then convert it to a wide character.