isalnum(3)

isalnum3

Alphanumeric character test

Usage

#include <ctype.h>

int

isalnum(int c);

int

isalnum_l(int c, locale_t loc);

Library

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

Overview

The isalnum() and isalnum_l() functions test for any character for which isalpha(3), isalpha_l(3) or isdigit(3), isdigit_l(3) is true. The value of the argument must be representable as an unsigned char or the value of EOF.

In the ASCII character set, this includes the following characters (with their numeric values shown in octal):

060 ``0''061 ``1''062 ``2''063 ``3''064 ``4''
065 ``5''066 ``6''067 ``7''070 ``8''071 ``9''
101 ``A''102 ``B''103 ``C''104 ``D''105 ``E''
106 ``F''107 ``G''110 ``H''111 ``I''112 ``J''
113 ``K''114 ``L''115 ``M''116 ``N''117 ``O''
120 ``P''121 ``Q''122 ``R''123 ``S''124 ``T''
125 ``U''126 ``V''127 ``W''130 ``X''131 ``Y''
132 ``Z''141 ``a''142 ``b''143 ``c''144 ``d''
145 ``e''146 ``f''147 ``g''150 ``h''151 ``i''
152 ``j''153 ``k''154 ``l''155 ``m''156 ``n''
157 ``o''160 ``p''161 ``q''162 ``r''163 ``s''
164 ``t''165 ``u''166 ``v''167 ``w''170 ``x''
171 ``y''172 ``z''

The isalnum_l() function takes an explicit locale argument, whereas the isalnum() function uses the current global or per-thread locale.

Return values

The isalnum() and isalnum_l() functions return zero if the character tests false and return non-zero if the character tests true.

Compatibility

The 4.4BSD extension of accepting arguments outside of the range of the unsigned char type in locales with large character sets is considered obsolete and may not be supported in future releases. The iswalnum() or iswalnum_l() function should be used instead.

Releases

87 releases since FreeBSD 2.0.5-RELEASE; the text changed 47 times.

  1. 2.0.5–2.1.7.1
  2. 2.2.2
  3. 2.2.5
  4. 2.2.6–3.4
  5. 3.5–3.5.1
  6. 4.0
  7. 4.1
  8. 4.1.1–4.2
  9. 4.3
  10. 4.4
  11. 4.5–4.11
  12. 5.0–5.2.1
  13. 5.3–5.5
  14. 6.0–6.3
  15. 6.4
  16. 7.0
  17. 7.1
  18. 7.2
  19. 7.3
  20. 7.4
  21. 8.0
  22. 8.1
  23. 8.2
  24. 8.3
  25. 8.4
  26. 9.0
  27. 9.1
  28. 9.2
  29. 9.3
  30. 10.0
  31. 10.1
  32. 10.2
  33. 10.3
  34. 10.4
  35. 11.0
  36. 11.1
  37. 11.2
  38. 11.3
  39. 11.4
  40. 12.0
  41. 12.1
  42. 12.2
  43. 12.3
  44. 12.4
  45. 13.0–13.1
  46. 13.2
  47. 13.3–14.5
  48. 15.0–16.0

Standards

The isalnum() function conforms to ISO/IEC 9899:1990 (“ISO C90”). The isalnum_l() function conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”).

History

The isalnum() function first appeared in Version 7 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.