_fgetchar, _fgetwchar

Article
06/05/2017

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The latest version of this topic can be found at _fgetchar, _fgetwchar.

Reads a character from stdin.

Syntax

int _fgetchar( void );  
wint_t _fgetwchar( void );

Return Value

_fgetchar returns the character read as an int or return EOF to indicate an error or end of file. _fgetwchar returns, as a wint_t, the wide character that corresponds to the character read or returns WEOF to indicate an error or end of file. For both functions, use feof or ferror to distinguish between an error and an end-of-file condition.

Remarks

These functions read a single character from stdin. The function then increments the associated file pointer (if defined) to point to the next character. If the stream is at end of file, the end-of-file indicator for the stream is set.

_fgetchar is equivalent to fgetc( stdin ). It is also equivalent to getchar, but implemented only as a function, rather than as a function and a macro. _fgetwchar is the wide-character version of _fgetchar.

These functions are not compatible with the ANSI standard.

Generic-Text Routine Mappings

Tchar.h routine	_UNICODE and _MBCS not defined	_MBCS defined	_UNICODE defined
`_fgettchar`	`_fgetchar`	`_fgetchar`	`_fgetwchar`

Requirements

Function	Required header
`_fgetchar`	<stdio.h>
`_fgetwchar`	<stdio.h> or <wchar.h>

The console is not supported in Windows 8.x Store apps. The standard stream handles that are associated with the console—stdin, stdout, and stderr—must be redirected before C run-time functions can use them in Windows 8.x Store apps. For more compatibility information, see Compatibility.

Example

// crt_fgetchar.c  
// This program uses _fgetchar to read the first  
// 80 input characters (or until the end of input)  
// and place them into a string named buffer.  
//  
  
#include <stdio.h>  
#include <stdlib.h>  
  
int main( void )  
{  
   char buffer[81];  
   int  i, ch;  
  
   // Read in first 80 characters and place them in "buffer":  
   ch = _fgetchar();  
   for( i=0; (i < 80 ) && ( feof( stdin ) == 0 ); i++ )  
   {  
      buffer[i] = (char)ch;  
      ch = _fgetchar();  
   }  
  
   // Add null to end string   
   buffer[i] = '\0';  
   printf( "%s\n", buffer );  
}

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