mbrlen

MBRLEN(3)		  Linux Programmer’s Manual		    MBRLEN(3)



NAME
       mbrlen - determine number of bytes in next multibyte character

SYNOPSIS
       #include <wchar.h>

       size_t mbrlen(const char *s, size_t n, mbstate_t *ps);

DESCRIPTION
       The  mbrlen  function inspects at most n bytes of the multibyte string
       starting at s and extracts the next complete multibyte character.   It
       updates	the  shift  state  *ps. If the multibyte character is not the
       null wide character, it returns the number of bytes that were consumed
       from  s.	 If  the  multibyte  character is the null wide character, it
       resets the shift state *ps to the initial state and returns 0.

       If the n bytes starting at s do not contain a complete multibyte char-
       acter,  mbrlen  returns	(size_t)(-2).  This  can  happen even if n >=
       MB_CUR_MAX,  if	the  multibyte	string	 contains   redundant	shift
       sequences.

       If  the	multibyte  string starting at s contains an invalid multibyte
       sequence	 before	 the  next   complete	character,   mbrlen   returns
       (size_t)(-1)  and  sets	errno to EILSEQ. In this case, the effects on
       *ps are undefined.

       If ps is a NULL pointer, a static anonymous state only  known  to  the
       mbrlen function is used instead.

RETURN VALUE
       The mbrlen function returns the number of bytes parsed from the multi-
       byte sequence starting at s, if a non-null wide character  was  recog-
       nized.	It  returns  0,	 if  a null wide character was recognized. It
       returns (size_t)(-1) and sets errno to EILSEQ, if an invalid multibyte
       sequence was encountered. It returns (size_t)(-2) if it couldn’t parse
       a complete multibyte character, meaning that n should be increased.

CONFORMING TO
       ISO/ANSI C, UNIX98

SEE ALSO
       mbrtowc(3)

NOTES
       The behaviour of mbrlen depends on the LC_CTYPE category of  the	 cur-
       rent locale.



GNU				  1999-07-25			    MBRLEN(3)