.\"*************************************************************************** .\" Copyright 2018-2024,2025 Thomas E. Dickey * .\" Copyright 1998-2010,2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc. * .\" * .\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a * .\" copy of this software and associated documentation files (the * .\" "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including * .\" without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, * .\" distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell * .\" copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is * .\" furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: * .\" * .\" The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included * .\" in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. * .\" * .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS * .\" OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF * .\" MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. * .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, * .\" DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR * .\" OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR * .\" THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. * .\" * .\" Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright * .\" holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the * .\" sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written * .\" authorization. * .\"*************************************************************************** .\" .\" $Id: curs_instr.3x,v 1.76 2025/07/05 12:55:50 tom Exp $ .TH curs_instr 3X 2025-07-05 "ncurses 6.5" "Library calls" .ie \n(.g \{\ .ds `` \(lq .ds '' \(rq .\} .el \{\ .ie t .ds `` `` .el .ds `` "" .ie t .ds '' '' .el .ds '' "" .\} . .de bP .ie n .IP \(bu 4 .el .IP \(bu 2 .. .SH NAME \fB\%instr\fP, \fB\%winstr\fP, \fB\%mvinstr\fP, \fB\%mvwinstr\fP, \fB\%innstr\fP, \fB\%winnstr\fP, \fB\%mvinnstr\fP, \fB\%mvwinnstr\fP \- get a string from a \fIcurses\fR window .SH SYNOPSIS .nf \fB#include .PP \fBint instr(char * \fIstr\fP); \fBint winstr(WINDOW * \fIwin\fP, char * \fIstr\fP); \fBint mvinstr(int \fIy\fP, int \fIx\fP, char * \fIstr\fP); \fBint mvwinstr(WINDOW * \fIwin\fP, int \fIy\fP, int \fIx\fP, char * \fIstr\fP); .PP \fBint innstr(char * \fIstr\fP, int \fIn\fP); \fBint winnstr(WINDOW * \fIwin\fP, char * \fIstr\fP, int \fIn\fP); \fBint mvinnstr(int \fIy\fP, int \fIx\fP, char * \fIstr\fP, int \fIn\fP); \fBint mvwinnstr(WINDOW * \fIwin\fP, int \fIy\fP, int \fIx\fP, char * \fIstr\fP, int \fIn\fP); .fi .SH DESCRIPTION .B \%winstr extracts a string from a .I curses window .IR win "," starting at the cursor and stopping at the end of the line, and stores it in .IR str "," terminating it with a null character and omitting any attributes and color pair identifier that .I curses associates with each character. .B \%winnstr does the same, but copies at most .I n characters from .IR win "." A negative .I n implies no limit; .B \%winnstr then works like .BR \%winstr "." \fB\%ncurses\fP(3X) describes the variants of these functions. .SH RETURN VALUE These functions return the count of characters copied from .I win to .I str (not counting the null terminator), or .B ERR upon failure. .PP In .IR \%ncurses "," these functions fail if .bP the .I curses screen has not been initialized, .bP (for functions taking a .I \%WINDOW pointer argument) .I win is a null pointer, or .bP .I str is a null pointer. .PP Functions prefixed with \*(``mv\*('' first perform cursor movement and fail if the position .RI ( y , .IR x ) is outside the window boundaries. .SH NOTES All of these functions except .B \%winnstr may be implemented as macros. .PP Reading a line that overflows the array pointed to by .I str with .BR \%instr "," .BR \%winstr "," .BR \%mvinstr "," or .B \%mvwinstr causes undefined results. Use of .BR \%innstr "," .BR \%winnstr "," .BR \%mvinnstr "," and .B \%mvwinnstr is recommended instead. .SH EXTENSIONS .BR \%innstr "," .BR \%winnstr "," .BR \%mvinnstr "," and .BR \%mvwinnstr "'s" acceptance of negative .I n values is an .I \%ncurses extension. .SH PORTABILITY Applications employing .I \%ncurses extensions should condition their use on the visibility of the .B \%NCURSES_VERSION preprocessor macro. .PP X/Open Curses Issue\ 4 describes these functions. It specifies no error conditions for them. .PP X/Open Curses Issues 4 and 7 both state that .IR \%instr "," .IR \%winstr "," .IR \%mvinstr "," and .I \%mvwinstr return .I OK rather than a character count. This is likely an erratum. .bP SVr3.1 and SVr4 implemented .I \%winstr as a wrapper around .IR \%winnstr "," returning the latter's return value. X/Open Curses's specification thus may have been an editorial solecism copied from System\ V's documentation (see below) by X/Open, rather than an intentional change. .bP .I \%ncurses retains compatibility with System\ V .I curses behavior. .PP SVr4 describes a successful return value only as \*(``an integer value other than .IR ERR \*(''. \" Courier roman in source; SVID 4, vol. 3, p. 503 .PP SVr4 does not document whether .I n counts the null terminator that these functions write to .IR str "." .SH HISTORY SVr3.1 (1987) introduced these functions. .SH SEE ALSO \fB\%curs_inwstr\fP(3X) describes comparable functions of the .I \%ncurses library in its wide-character configuration .RI \%( ncursesw ). .PP \fB\%curses\fP(3X), \fB\%curs_inch\fP(3X), \fB\%curs_inchstr\fP(3X)