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getc, getwc, getchar, getwchar

Visual Studio .NET 2003

Read a character from a stream (getc, getwc), or get a character from stdin (getchar, getwchar).

int getc( 
   FILE *stream 
);
wint_t getwc( 
   FILE *stream 
);
int getchar( void );
wint_t getwchar( void );

Parameter

stream: Input stream.

Return Value

Returns the character read. To indicate a read error or end-of-file condition, getc and getchar return EOF, and getwc and getwchar return WEOF. For getc and getchar, use ferror or feof to check for an error or for end of file.

Remarks

Each routine reads a single character from a file at the current position and increments the associated file pointer (if defined) to point to the next character. For getc and getwc, the file is associated with stream (see Choosing Between Functions and Macros). Routine-specific remarks follow.

Routine	Remarks
getc	Same as fgetc, but implemented as a function and as a macro.
getwc	Wide-character version of getc. Reads a multibyte character or a wide character according to whether stream is opened in text mode or binary mode.
getchar	Same as _fgetchar, but implemented as a function and as a macro.
getwchar	Wide-character version of getchar. Reads a multibyte character or a wide character according to whether stream is opened in text mode or binary mode.

Generic-Text Routine Mappings

TCHAR.H routine	_UNICODE & _MBCS not defined	_MBCS defined	_UNICODE defined
_gettc	getc	getc	getwc
_gettchar	getchar	getchar	getwchar

Requirements

Routine	Required header	Compatibility
getc	<stdio.h>	ANSI, Win 98, Win Me, Win NT, Win 2000, Win XP
getwc	<stdio.h> or <wchar.h>	ANSI, Win 98, Win Me, Win NT, Win 2000, Win XP
getchar	<stdio.h>	ANSI, Win 98, Win Me, Win NT, Win 2000, Win XP
getwchar	<stdio.h> or <wchar.h>	ANSI, Win 98, Win Me, Win NT, Win 2000, Win XP

For additional compatibility information, see Compatibility in the Introduction.

Libraries

All versions of the C run-time libraries.

Example

// crt_getc.c
/* This program uses getchar to read a single line
 * of input from stdin, places this input in buffer, then
 * terminates the string before printing it to the screen.
 */

#include <stdio.h>

int main( void )
{
   char buffer[81];
   int i, ch;

   /* Read in single line from "stdin": */
   for( i = 0; (i < 80) &&  ((ch = getchar()) != EOF) 
                        && (ch != '\n'); i++ )
      buffer[i] = (char)ch;

   /* Terminate string with null character: */
   buffer[i] = '\0';
   printf( "Input was: %s\n", buffer );
}

Input

This is a test

Output

Input was: This is a test