GetStringTypeW function (stringapiset.h)

Retrieves character type information for the characters in the specified Unicode source string. For each character in the string, the function sets one or more bits in the corresponding 16-bit element of the output array. Each bit identifies a given character type, for example, letter, digit, or neither.

Caution  Using the GetStringTypeW function incorrectly can compromise the security of your application. To avoid a buffer overflow, the application must set the output buffer size correctly. For more security information, see Security Considerations: Windows User Interface.

 

Syntax

BOOL GetStringTypeW(
  [in]  DWORD                         dwInfoType,
  [in]  _In_NLS_string_(cchSrc)LPCWCH lpSrcStr,
  [in]  int                           cchSrc,
  [out] LPWORD                        lpCharType
);

Parameters

[in] dwInfoType

Flags specifying the character type information to retrieve. This parameter can have the following values. The character types are divided into different levels as described in the Remarks section.

Flag Meaning
CT_CTYPE1
Retrieve character type information.
CT_CTYPE2
Retrieve bidirectional layout information.
CT_CTYPE3
Retrieve text processing information.

[in] lpSrcStr

Pointer to the Unicode string for which to retrieve the character types. The string is assumed to be null-terminated if cchSrc is set to any negative value.

[in] cchSrc

Size, in characters, of the string indicated by lpSrcStr. If the size includes a terminating null character, the function retrieves character type information for that character. If the application sets the size to any negative integer, the source string is assumed to be null-terminated and the function calculates the size automatically with an additional character for the null termination.

[out] lpCharType

Pointer to an array of 16-bit values. The length of this array must be large enough to receive one 16-bit value for each character in the source string. If cchSrc is not a negative number, lpCharType should be an array of words with cchSrc elements. If cchSrc is set to a negative number, lpCharType is an array of words with lpSrcStr + 1 elements. When the function returns, this array contains one word corresponding to each character in the source string.

Return value

Returns a nonzero value if successful, or 0 otherwise. To get extended error information, the application can call GetLastError, which can return one of the following error codes:

  • ERROR_INVALID_FLAGS. The values supplied for flags were not valid.
  • ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER. Any of the parameter values was invalid.

Remarks

For an overview of the use of the string functions, see Strings.

The values of the lpSrcStr and lpCharType parameters must not be the same. If they are the same, the function fails with ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER.

The Locale parameter used by the corresponding GetStringTypeA function is not used by this function. Because of the parameter difference, an application cannot automatically invoke the proper ANSI or Unicode version of a GetStringType* function through the use of the #define UNICODE switch. An application can circumvent this limitation by using GetStringTypeEx, which is the recommended function.

Supported Character Types

The character type bits are divided into several levels. The information for one level can be retrieved by a single call to this function. Each level is limited to 16 bits of information so that the other mapping functions, which are limited to 16 bits of representation per character, can also return character type information.

Ctype 1

These types support ANSI C and POSIX (LC_CTYPE) character typing functions. A bitwise-OR of these values is retrieved in the array in the output buffer when dwInfoType is set to CT_CTYPE1. For DBCS locales, the type attributes apply to both narrow characters and wide characters. The Japanese hiragana and katakana characters, and the kanji ideograph characters all have the C1_ALPHA attribute.

Name Value Meaning
C1_UPPER 0x0001 Uppercase
C1_LOWER 0x0002 Lowercase
C1_DIGIT 0x0004 Decimal digits
C1_SPACE 0x0008 Space characters
C1_PUNCT 0x0010 Punctuation
C1_CNTRL 0x0020 Control characters
C1_BLANK 0x0040 Blank characters
C1_XDIGIT 0x0080 Hexadecimal digits
C1_ALPHA 0x0100 Any linguistic character: alphabetical, syllabary, or ideographic
C1_DEFINED 0x0200 A defined character, but not one of the other C1_* types
 

The following character types are either constant or computable from basic types and do not need to be supported by this function.

Type Description
Alphanumeric Alphabetical characters and digits (C1_ALPHA and C1_DIGIT)
Printable Graphic characters and blanks (all C1_* types except C1_CNTRL)
 

Ctype 2

These types support proper layout of Unicode text. For DBCS locales, the character type applies to both narrow and wide characters. The direction attributes are assigned so that the bidirectional layout algorithm standardized by Unicode produces accurate results. These types are mutually exclusive. For more information about the use of these attributes, see The Unicode Standard.

Name Value Meaning
Strong
C2_LEFTTORIGHT 0x0001 Left to right
C2_RIGHTTOLEFT 0x0002 Right to left
Weak
C2_EUROPENUMBER 0x0003 European number, European digit
C2_EUROPESEPARATOR 0x0004 European numeric separator
C2_EUROPETERMINATOR 0x0005 European numeric terminator
C2_ARABICNUMBER 0x0006 Arabic number
C2_COMMONSEPARATOR 0x0007 Common numeric separator
Neutral
C2_BLOCKSEPARATOR 0x0008 Block separator
C2_SEGMENTSEPARATOR 0x0009 Segment separator
C2_WHITESPACE 0x000A White space
C2_OTHERNEUTRAL 0x000B Other neutrals
Not applicable
C2_NOTAPPLICABLE 0x0000 No implicit directionality (for example, control codes)
 

Ctype 3

These types are intended to be placeholders for extensions to the POSIX types required for general text processing or for the standard C library functions. A bitwise-OR of these values is retrieved when dwInfoType is set to CT_CTYPE3. For DBCS locales, the Ctype 3 attributes apply to both narrow characters and wide characters. The Japanese hiragana and katakana characters, and the kanji ideograph characters all have the C3_ALPHA attribute.

Name Value Meaning
C3_NONSPACING 0x0001 Nonspacing mark
C3_DIACRITIC 0x0002 Diacritic nonspacing mark
C3_VOWELMARK 0x0004 Vowel nonspacing mark
C3_SYMBOL 0x0008 Symbol
C3_KATAKANA 0x0010 Katakana character
C3_HIRAGANA 0x0020 Hiragana character
C3_HALFWIDTH 0x0040 Half-width (narrow) character
C3_FULLWIDTH 0x0080 Full-width (wide) character
C3_IDEOGRAPH 0x0100 Ideographic character
C3_KASHIDA 0x0200 Arabic kashida character
C3_LEXICAL 0x0400 Punctuation which is counted as part of the word (kashida, hyphen, feminine/masculine ordinal indicators, equal sign, and so forth)
C3_ALPHA 0x8000 All linguistic characters (alphabetical, syllabary, and ideographic)
C3_HIGHSURROGATE 0x0800 Windows Vista: High surrogate code unit
C3_LOWSURROGATE 0x1000 Windows Vista: Low surrogate code unit
Not applicable
C3_NOTAPPLICABLE 0x0000 Not applicable
 

C3_HIGHSURROGATE and C3_LOWSURROGATE are listed only for completeness, and should never be provided to this function. They are relevant only for Unicode.

Starting with Windows 8: GetStringTypeW is declared in Stringapiset.h. Before Windows 8, it was declared in Winnls.h.

Requirements

Requirement Value
Minimum supported client Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps | UWP apps]
Minimum supported server Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps | UWP apps]
Target Platform Windows
Header stringapiset.h (include Windows.h)
Library Kernel32.lib
DLL Kernel32.dll

See also

GetStringTypeA

GetStringTypeEx

National Language Support

National Language Support Functions