wchar_t(3type)

wchar_t3type

Wide-character type

Usage

#include <stddef.h>

typedef /* ... */ wchar_t;

#include <stdint.h>

#define WCHAR_WIDTH /* ... */ #define WCHAR_MAX /* ... */ #define WCHAR_MIN /* ... */

Library

Standard C library (libc)

Overview

wchar_t is a type used for storing a wide character. It is an integer type.

Notes

The following headers also provide this type: <inttypes.h>, <stdlib.h>, <wchar.h>, <wctype.h>.

The following header also provides these macros: <wchar.h>.

Releases

2 releases since Debian 13 (Trixie); the text changed 1 time.

  1. 13
  2. Arch

Standards

C11, POSIX.1-2024.

History

wchar_t

SUSv1, C99, POSIX.1-2001.

WCHAR_MAXWCHAR_MIN

SUSv2, C99, POSIX.1-2001.

The WCHAR_WIDTH macro was added in C23.

From man-pages 6.19-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.