# std::mbrlen

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< cpp‎ | string‎ | multibyte

Defined in header `<cwchar>` |  |
std::size_t mbrlen( const char* s, std::size_t n, std::mbstate_t* ps); |  |

Determines the size, in bytes, of the remainder of the multibyte character whose first byte is pointed to by `s`, given the current conversion state `ps`.

This function is equivalent to the call std::mbrtowc(nullptr, s, n, ps?ps:&internal) for some hidden object `internal` of type std::mbstate_t, except that the expression `ps` is evaluated only once.

### Parameters

s | - | pointer to an element of a multibyte character string
n | - | limit on the number of bytes in s that can be examined
ps | - | pointer to the variable holding the conversion state

### Return value

​0​ if the next `n` or fewer bytes complete the null character.

The number of bytes (between 1 and n) that complete a valid multibyte character

(size_t)-1 if encoding error occurs

(size_t)-2 if the next `n` bytes are part of a possibly valid multibyte character, which is still incomplete after examining all `n` bytes

### Example

Run this code

    #include <clocale>
    #include <string>
    #include <iostream>
    #include <cwchar>

    int main()
    {
        // allow mbrlen() to work with UTF-8 multibyte encoding
        std::setlocale(LC_ALL, "en_US.utf8");
        // UTF-8 narrow multibyte encoding
        std::string str = u8"水"; // or u8"\u6c34" or "\xe6\xb0\xb4"
        std::mbstate_t mb = std::mbstate_t();
        int len1 = std::mbrlen(&str[0], 1, &mb);
        if(len1 == -2) {
            std::cout << "The first 1 byte of " << str
                      << " is an incomplete multibyte char (mbrlen returns -2)\n";
        }
        int len2 = std::mbrlen(&str[1], str.size()-1, &mb);
        std::cout << "The remaining " << str.size()-1 << " bytes of " << str
                  << " hold " << len2 << " bytes of the multibyte character\n";
        std::cout << "Attempting to call mbrlen() in the middle of " << str
                  << " while in initial shift state returns "
                  << (int)mbrlen(&str[1], str.size(), &mb) << '\n';

    }

Output:

    The first 1 byte of 水 is an incomplete multibyte char (mbrlen returns -2)
    The remaining 2 bytes of 水 hold 2 bytes of the multibyte character
    Attempting to call mbrlen() in the middle of 水 while in initial shift state returns -1

### See also

mbrtowc | converts the next multibyte character to wide character, given state (function)
mblen | returns the number of bytes in the next multibyte character (function)
do_length [virtual] | calculates the length of the externT string that would be consumed by conversion into given internT buffer (virtual protected member function of `std::codecvt`)
C documentation for mbrlen

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