NAME

       mbrlen - determine number of bytes in next multibyte character

SYNOPSIS

       #include <wchar.h>

       size_t mbrlen (const char *s, size_t n, mbstate_t *ps);

DESCRIPTION

       The  mbrlen function inspects at most n bytes of the multibyte string starting at s and extracts the next
       complete multibyte character.  It updates the shift state *ps. If the multibyte character is not the null
       wide character, it returns the number of bytes that were consumed from s. If the multibyte  character  is
       the null wide character, it resets the shift state *ps to the initial state and returns 0.

       If  the n bytes starting at s do not contain a complete multibyte character, mbrlen returns (size_t)(-2).
       This can happen even if n >= MB_CUR_MAX, if the multibyte string contains redundant shift sequences.

       If the multibyte string starting at s contains an invalid multibyte sequence  before  the  next  complete
       character,  mbrlen  returns  (size_t)(-1)  and sets errno to EILSEQ. In this case, the effects on *ps are
       undefined.

       If ps is a NULL pointer, a static anonymous state only known to the mbrlen function is used instead.

RETURN VALUE

       The mbrlen function returns the number of bytes parsed from the multibyte sequence starting at  s,  if  a
       non-null  wide  character  was  recognized.   It  returns  0, if a null wide character was recognized. It
       returns (size_t)(-1) and sets errno to EILSEQ, if an  invalid  multibyte  sequence  was  encountered.  It
       returns  (size_t)(-2)  if  it  couldn't  parse  a  complete multibyte character, meaning that n should be
       increased.

CONFORMING TO

       ISO/ANSI C, UNIX98

SEE ALSO

       mbrtowc(3)

NOTES

       The behaviour of mbrlen depends on the LC_CTYPE category of the current locale.

GNU                                               July 25, 1999                                        MBRLEN(3)