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strlen, strlen_l, wcslen, wcslen_l, _mbslen, _mbslen_l, _mbstrlen, _mbstrlen_l

Get the length of a string, using the current locale or a specified locale. More secure versions of these functions are available; see strnlen, strnlen_s, strnlen_l, wcsnlen, wcsnlen_s, wcsnlen_l, _mbsnlen, _mbsnlen_l, _mbstrnlen, _mbstrnlen_l

size_t strlen(
   const char *str
);
size_t strlen_l(
   const char *str,
   _locale_t locale 
);
size_t wcslen(
   const wchar_t *str 
);
size_t wcslen_l(
   const wchar_t *str,
   _locale_t locale
);
size_t _mbslen(
   const unsigned char *str 
);
size_t _mbslen_l(
   const unsigned char *str,
   _locale_t locale
);
size_t _mbstrlen(
   const char *str
);
size_t _mbstrlen_l(
   const char *str,
   _locale_t locale
);

Parameters

  • str
    Null-terminated string.

  • locale
    Locale to use.

Return Value

Each of these functions returns the number of characters in str, excluding the terminal NULL. No return value is reserved to indicate an error, except for _mbstrlen, which returns -1 if the string contains an invalid multibyte character.

Remarks

strlen interprets the string as a single-byte character string, so its return value is always equal to the number of bytes, even if the string contains multibyte characters. wcslen is a wide-character version of strlen; the argument of wcslen is a wide-character string and the count of characters is in wide (two-byte) characters. wcslen and strlen behave identically otherwise.

Security Note    These functions incur a potential threat brought about by a buffer overrun problem. Buffer overrun problems are a frequent method of system attack, resulting in an unwarranted elevation of privilege. For more information, see Avoiding Buffer Overruns.

Generic-Text Routine Mappings

TCHAR.H routine

_UNICODE & _MBCS not defined

_MBCS defined

_UNICODE defined

_tcslen

strlen

strlen

wcslen

_tcsclen

strlen

_mbslen

wcslen

_tcsclen_l

strlen_l

_mbslen_l

wcslen_l

_mbslen,_mbslen_l, _mbstrlenand_mbstrlen_l return the number of multibyte characters in a multibyte-character string but they do not test for multibyte-character validity. _mbstrlenand_mbstrlen_l tests for multibyte-character validity and recognizes multibyte-character sequencessetlocale, _wsetlocale. If the string passed to _mbstrlen or_mbstrlen_l contain an invalid multibyte character for the code page, it returns -1 and sets errno to EILSEQ.

The output value is affected by the setting of the LC_CTYPE category setting of the locale; see setlocale for more information. The versions of these functions without the _l suffix use the current locale for this locale-dependent behavior; the versions with the _l suffix are identical except that they use the locale parameter passed in instead. For more information, see Locale.

Requirements

Routine

Required header

strlen

<string.h>

strlen_l

<string.h>

wcslen, wcslen_l

<string.h> or <wchar.h>

_mbslen, _mbslen_l

<mbstring.h>

_mbstrlen, _mbstrlen_l

<stdlib.h>

For additional compatibility information, see Compatibility in the Introduction.

Example

// crt_strlen.c
// Determine the length of a string. For the multi-byte character
// example to work correctly, the Japanese language support for
// non-Unicode programs must be enabled by the operating system.


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

int main()
{
   char* str1 = "Count.";
   wchar_t* wstr1 = L"Count.";
   char * mbstr1;
   char * locale_string;

   // strlen gives the length of single-byte character string
   printf("Length of '%s' : %d\n", str1, strlen(str1) );

   // wstrlen gives the length of a wide character string
   wprintf(L"Length of '%s' : %d\n", wstr1, wcslen(wstr1) );

   // A multibyte string: [A] [B] [C] [katakana A] [D] [\0]
   // in Code Page 932. For this example to work correctly,
   // the Japanese language support must be enabled by the
   // operating system.
   mbstr1 = "ABC" "\x83\x40" "D";

   locale_string = setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "Japanese_Japan");

   if (locale_string == NULL)
   {
      printf("Japanese locale not enabled. Exiting.\n");
      exit(1);
   }
   else
   {
      printf("Locale set to %s\n", locale_string);
   }

   // _mbslen will recognize the Japanese multibyte character if the
   // current locale used by the operating system is Japanese
   printf("Length of '%s' : %d\n", mbstr1, _mbslen(mbstr1) );

   // _mbstrlen will recognize the Japanese multibyte character
   // since the CRT locale is set to Japanese even if the OS locale
   // isnot. 
   printf("Length of '%s' : %d\n", mbstr1, _mbstrlen(mbstr1) );
   printf("Bytes in '%s' : %d\n", mbstr1, strlen(mbstr1) );   
  
}

Length of 'Count.' : 6
Length of 'Count.' : 6
Length of 'ABCァD' : 5
Length of 'ABCァD' : 5
Bytes in 'ABCァD' : 6

.NET Framework Equivalent

System::String::Length

See Also

Concepts

String Manipulation (CRT)

Interpretation of Multibyte-Character Sequences

Locale

setlocale, _wsetlocale

strcat, wcscat, _mbscat

strcmp, wcscmp, _mbscmp

strcoll Functions

strcpy, wcscpy, _mbscpy

strrchr, wcsrchr, _mbsrchr, _mbsrchr_l

_strset, _strset_l, _wcsset, _wcsset_l, _mbsset, _mbsset_l

strspn, wcsspn, _mbsspn, _mbsspn_l