WCSTOMBS(3)		   Linux Programmers Manual		  WCSTOMBS(3)



NAME
       wcstombs - convert a wide-character string to a multibyte string

SYNOPSIS
       #include 

       size_t wcstombs(char *dest, const wchar_t *src, size_t n);

DESCRIPTION
       If  dest  is  not  a NULL pointer, the wcstombs() function converts 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 current 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  converted,  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 con
       verted, (size_t) -1 is returned.

CONFORMING TO
       C99.

NOTES
       The behavior of wcstombs() depends on the LC_CTYPE category of the cur
       rent locale.

       The  function wcsrtombs(3) provides a thread safe interface to the same
       functionality.

SEE ALSO
       wcsrtombs(3)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.05 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of	the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



GNU				  1999-07-25			   WCSTOMBS(3)