getwchar(3)

getwchar3

Get next wide character from input stream

Part of getwc(3).

Usage

#include <stdio.h>

#include <wchar.h>

wint_t

fgetwc(FILE *stream);

wint_t

getwc(FILE *stream);

wint_t

getwchar(void);

Library

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

Overview

The fgetwc() function obtains the next input wide character (if present) from the stream pointed at by stream, or the next character pushed back on the stream via ungetwc(3).

The getwc() function acts essentially identically to fgetwc().

The getwchar() function is equivalent to getwc() with the argument stdin.

Return values

If successful, these routines return the next wide character from the stream. If the stream is at end-of-file or a read error occurs, the routines return WEOF. The routines feof(3) and ferror(3) must be used to distinguish between end-of-file and error. If an error occurs, the global variable errno is set to indicate the error. The end-of-file condition is remembered, even on a terminal, and all subsequent attempts to read will return WEOF until the condition is cleared with clearerr(3).

Releases

56 releases since FreeBSD 5.0-RELEASE; the text changed 34 times.

  1. 5.0–5.2.1
  2. 5.3–6.3
  3. 6.4
  4. 7.0
  5. 7.1
  6. 7.2
  7. 7.3
  8. 7.4
  9. 8.0
  10. 8.1
  11. 8.2
  12. 8.3
  13. 8.4
  14. 9.0
  15. 9.1
  16. 9.2
  17. 9.3
  18. 10.0
  19. 10.1
  20. 10.2
  21. 10.3
  22. 10.4
  23. 11.0
  24. 11.1
  25. 11.2
  26. 11.3
  27. 11.4
  28. 12.0
  29. 12.1
  30. 12.2
  31. 12.3
  32. 12.4
  33. 13.0–13.2
  34. 13.3–14.5
  35. 15.0–16.0

Standards

The fgetwc(), getwc() and getwchar() functions conform to ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (“ISO C99”).

History

A version of the getc() and getw() functions appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

From base 16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79 in FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27). Parsed by carta from the page's mdoc source.