# getchar

From cppreference.com
< c‎ | io

Defined in header `<stdio.h>` |  |
int getchar(void); |  |

Reads the next character from stdin.

Equivalent to getc(stdin).

### Parameters

(none)

### Return value

The obtained character on success or EOF on failure.

If the failure has been caused by end-of-file condition, additionally sets the eof indicator (see feof()) on stdin. If the failure has been caused by some other error, sets the error indicator (see ferror()) on stdin.

### Example

getchar with error checking

Run this code

    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <stdlib.h>

    int main(void)
    {
        int ch;
        while ((ch=getchar()) != EOF)   /* read/print "abcde" from stdin */
              printf("%c", ch);

        /* Test reason for reaching EOF. */
        if (feof(stdin))          /* if failure caused by end-of-file condition */
           puts("End of file reached");
        else if (ferror(stdin))   /* if failure caused by some other error      */
             {
                perror("getchar()");
                fprintf(stderr,"getchar() failed in file %s at line # %d\n", __FILE__,__LINE__-9);
                exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
             }

        return EXIT_SUCCESS;
    }

Output:

    abcde
    End of file reached

### References

- C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

  - 7.21.7.6 The getchar function (p: 332)

- C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

  - 7.19.7.6 The getchar function (p: 298)

- C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):

  - 4.9.7.6 The getchar function

### See also

fgetc getc | gets a character from a file stream (function)
C++ documentation for getchar

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