getwchar(3p) — Linux manual page

GETWCHAR(3P)            POSIX Programmer's Manual            GETWCHAR(3P)

PROLOG         top

       This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The
       Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the
       corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or
       the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME         top

       getwchar — get a wide character from a stdin stream

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <wchar.h>

       wint_t getwchar(void);

DESCRIPTION         top

       The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with
       the ISO C standard. Any conflict between the requirements
       described here and the ISO C standard is unintentional. This
       volume of POSIX.1‐2017 defers to the ISO C standard.

       The getwchar() function shall be equivalent to getwc(stdin).

RETURN VALUE         top

       Refer to fgetwc(3p).

ERRORS         top

       Refer to fgetwc(3p).

       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES         top

       None.

APPLICATION USAGE         top

       If the wint_t value returned by getwchar() is stored into a
       variable of type wchar_t and then compared against the wint_t
       macro WEOF, the result may be incorrect. Only the wint_t type is
       guaranteed to be able to represent any wide character and WEOF.

RATIONALE         top

       None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS         top

       None.

SEE ALSO         top

       Section 2.5, Standard I/O Streams, fgetwc(3p), getwc(3p)

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, wchar.h(0p)

COPYRIGHT         top

       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic
       form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information
       Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The
       Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright
       (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
       Inc and The Open Group.  In the event of any discrepancy between
       this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard,
       the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee
       document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
       http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page
       are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of
       the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

IEEE/The Open Group                2017                      GETWCHAR(3P)

Pages that refer to this page: wchar.h(0p)

HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH.