# std::mbstowcs

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< cpp‎ | string‎ | multibyte

Defined in header `<cstdlib>` |  |
std::size_t mbstowcs( wchar_t* dst, const char* src, std::size_t len); |  |

Converts a multibyte character string from the array whose first element is pointed to by `src` to its wide character representation. Converted characters are stored in the successive elements of the array pointed to by `dst`. No more than `len` wide characters are written to the destination array.

Each character is converted as if by a call to std::mbtowc, except that the mbtowc conversion state is unaffected. The conversion stops if:

- The multibyte null character was converted and stored.
- An invalid (in the current C locale) multibyte character was encountered.
- The next wide character to be stored would exceed `len`.

### Notes

In most implementations, this function updates a global static object of type std::mbstate_t as it processes through the string, and cannot be called simultaneously by two threads, std::mbsrtowcs should be used in such cases.

POSIX specifies a common extension: if `dst` is a null pointer, this function returns the number of wide characters that would be written to `dst`, if converted. Similar behavior is standard for std::mbsrtowcs.

### Parameters

dst | - | pointer to wide character array where the wide string will be stored
src | - | pointer to the first element of a null-terminated multibyte string to convert
len | - | number of wide characters available in the array pointed to by dst

### Return value

On success, returns the number of wide characters, excluding the terminating L'\0', written to the destination array.

On conversion error (if invalid multibyte character was encountered), returns -1.

### Example

Run this code

    #include <iostream>
    #include <clocale>
    #include <cstdlib>
    int main()
    {
        std::setlocale(LC_ALL, "en_US.utf8");
        std::wcout.imbue(std::locale("en_US.utf8"));
        const char* mbstr = u8"z\u00df\u6c34\U0001f34c"; // or u8"zß水🍌"
                            // or "\x7a\xc3\x9f\xe6\xb0\xb4\xf0\x9f\x8d\x8c";
        wchar_t wstr[5];
        std::mbstowcs(wstr, mbstr, 5);
        std::wcout << "wide string: " << wstr << '\n';
    }

Output:

    wide string: zß水🍌

### See also

mbsrtowcs | converts a narrow multibyte character string to wide string, given state (function)
wcstombs | converts a wide string to narrow multibyte character string (function)
do_in [virtual] | converts a string from externT to internT, such as when reading from file (virtual protected member function of `std::codecvt`)
C documentation for mbstowcs

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