wctob(3)

wctob3

Try to represent a wide character as a single byte

Usage

#include <wchar.h>

int wctob(wint_t c);

Library

Standard C library (libc, -lc)

Overview

The wctob() function tests whether the multibyte representation of the wide character c, starting in the initial state, consists of a single byte. If so, it is returned as an unsigned char.

Never use this function. It cannot help you in writing internationalized programs. Internationalized programs must never distinguish single-byte and multibyte characters.

Return value

The wctob() function returns the single-byte representation of c, if it exists, or EOF otherwise.

Attributes

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

InterfaceAttributeValue
wctob()Thread safetyMT-Safe

Notes

The behavior of wctob() depends on the LC_CTYPE category of the current locale.

This function should never be used. Internationalized programs must never distinguish single-byte and multibyte characters. Use either wctomb(3) or the thread-safe wcrtomb(3) instead.

Releases

14 releases since Debian 2.2 (Potato); the text changed 13 times.

  1. 2.2
  2. 3.0
  3. 3.1
  4. 4.0
  5. 5.0
  6. 6.0
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. Arch

Standards

C11, POSIX.1-2008.

History

POSIX.1-2001, C99.

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