# mblen

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< c‎ | string‎ | multibyte

Defined in header `<stdlib.h>` |  |
int mblen( const char* s, size_t n ); |  |

Determines the size, in bytes, of the multibyte character whose first byte is pointed to by `s`.

If `s` is a null pointer, resets the global conversion state and determined whether shift sequences are used.

This function is equivalent to the call mbtowc((wchar_t*)0, s, n), except that conversion state of mbtowc is unaffected.

### Notes

Each call to `mblen` updates the internal global conversion state (a static object of type mbstate_t, only known to this function). If the multibyte encoding uses shift states, care must be taken to avoid backtracking or multiple scans. In any case, multiple threads should not call `mblen` without synchronization: mbrlen may be used instead.

### Parameters

s | - | pointer to the multibyte character
n | - | limit on the number of bytes in s that can be examined

### Return value

If `s` is not a null pointer, returns the number of bytes that are contained in the multibyte character or -1 if the first bytes pointed to by `s` do not form a valid multibyte character or ​0​ if `s` is pointing at the null charcter '\0'.

If `s` is a null pointer, resets its internal conversion state to represent the initial shift state and returns ​0​ if the current multibyte encoding is not state-dependent (does not use shift sequences) or a non-zero value if the current multibyte encoding is state-dependent (uses shift sequences).

### Example

Run this code

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

    // the number of characters in a multibyte string is the sum of mblen()'s
    // note: the simpler approach is mbstowcs(NULL, str, sz)
    size_t strlen_mb(const char* ptr)
    {
        size_t result = 0;
        const char* end = ptr + strlen(ptr);
        mblen(NULL, 0); // reset the conversion state
        while(ptr < end) {
            int next = mblen(ptr, end - ptr);
            if(next == -1) {
               perror("strlen_mb");
               break;
            }
            ptr += next;
            ++result;
        }
        return result;
    }

    int main(void)
    {
        setlocale(LC_ALL, "en_US.utf8");
        const char* str = "z\u00df\u6c34\U0001f34c";
        printf("The string %s consists of %zu bytes, but only %zu characters\n",
                str, strlen(str), strlen_mb(str));
    }

Possible output:

    The string zß水🍌 consists of 10 bytes, but only 4 characters

### References

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

  - 7.22.7.1 The mblen function (p: 357)

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

  - 7.20.7.1 The mblen function (p: 321)

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

  - 4.10.7.1 The mblen function

### See also

mbtowc | converts the next multibyte character to wide character (function)
mbrlen (C95) | returns the number of bytes in the next multibyte character, given state (function)
C++ documentation for mblen

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