wcwidth Subroutine

Purpose

Determines the display width of wide characters.

Library

Standard C Library (libc.a)

Syntax

#include <string.h>

int wcwidth ( WC)

wchar_t WC;

Description

The wcwidth subroutine determines the number of display columns to be occupied by the wide character specified by the WC parameter. The LC_CTYPE subroutine affects the behavior of the wcwidth subroutine.

Parameters

Item Description
WC Specifies a wide character.

Return Values

The wcwidth subroutine returns the number of display columns to be occupied by the WC parameter. If the WC parameter is a wide character null, a value of 0 is returned. If the WC parameter points to an unusable wide character code, -1 is returned.

Examples

To find the display column width of a wide character, use the following:

#include <string.h>
#include <locale.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
 
main()
{
   wchar_t wc;
   int   retval;
 
   (void)setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
   /* Let wc be the wide character whose
   ** display width is to be found.
   */
   retval= wcwidth( wc );
   if(retval == -1){
            /* 
            ** Error handling. Invalid wide character in wc.
            */
   }
}