.\" Copyright (c) Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org>
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.TH WCTYPE 3  2014-01-22 "GNU" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
wctype \- wide-character classification
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <wctype.h>
.sp
.BI "wctype_t wctype(const char *" name );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.I wctype_t
type represents a property which a wide character may or
may not have.
In other words, it represents a class of wide characters.
This type's nature is implementation-dependent, but the special value
.I "(wctype_t) 0"
denotes an invalid property.
Nonzero
.I wctype_t
values
can be passed to the
.BR iswctype (3)
function
to actually test whether a given
wide character has the property.
.PP
The
.BR wctype ()
function returns a property, given by its name.
The set of
valid names depends on the
.B LC_CTYPE
category of the current locale, but the
following names are valid in all locales.
.nf
  "alnum" \- realizes the \fBisalnum\fP(3) classification function
  "alpha" \- realizes the \fBisalpha\fP(3) classification function
  "blank" \- realizes the \fBisblank\fP(3) classification function
  "cntrl" \- realizes the \fBiscntrl\fP(3) classification function
  "digit" \- realizes the \fBisdigit\fP(3) classification function
  "graph" \- realizes the \fBisgraph\fP(3) classification function
  "lower" \- realizes the \fBislower\fP(3) classification function
  "print" \- realizes the \fBisprint\fP(3) classification function
  "punct" \- realizes the \fBispunct\fP(3) classification function
  "space" \- realizes the \fBisspace\fP(3) classification function
  "upper" \- realizes the \fBisupper\fP(3) classification function
  "xdigit" \- realizes the \fBisxdigit\fP(3) classification function
.fi
.SH RETURN VALUE
The
.BR wctype ()
function returns a property descriptor
if the
.I name
is valid.
Otherwise, it returns
.IR "(wctype_t) 0" .
.SH ATTRIBUTES
.SS Multithreading (see pthreads(7))
The
.BR wctype ()
function is thread-safe with exceptions.
It can be safely used in multithreaded applications, as long as
.BR setlocale (3)
is not called to change the locale during its execution.
.SH CONFORMING TO
C99.
.SH NOTES
The behavior of
.BR wctype ()
depends on the
.B LC_CTYPE
category of the
current locale.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR iswctype (3)
.SH COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.74 of the Linux
.I man-pages
project.
A description of the project,
information about reporting bugs,
and the latest version of this page,
can be found at
\%http://www.kernel.org/doc/man\-pages/.