DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / ncurses-doc / inchstr.3ncurses.en
inchstr(3NCURSES) inchstr(3NCURSES)

inchstr, inchnstr, winchstr, winchnstr, mvinchstr, mvinchnstr, mvwinchstr, mvwinchnstr - get a string of characters (and attributes) from a curses window

#include <curses.h>

int inchstr(chtype *chstr);
int inchnstr(chtype *chstr, int n);
int winchstr(WINDOW *win, chtype *chstr);
int winchnstr(WINDOW *win, chtype *chstr, int n);

int mvinchstr(int y, int x, chtype *chstr);
int mvinchnstr(int y, int x, chtype *chstr, int n);
int mvwinchstr(WINDOW *win, int y, int x, chtype *chstr);
int mvwinchnstr(WINDOW *win, int y, int x, chtype *chstr, int n);

These routines return a NULL-terminated array of chtype quantities, starting at the current cursor position in the named window and ending at the right margin of the window. The four functions with n as the last argument, return a leading substring at most n characters long (exclusive of the trailing (chtype)0). Constants defined in <curses.h> can be used with the & (logical AND) operator to extract the character or the attribute alone from any position in the chstr [see inch(3NCURSES)].

All routines return the integer ERR upon failure and an integer value other than ERR upon successful completion (the number of characters retrieved, exclusive of the trailing 0).

X/Open Curses defines no error conditions. In this implementation:

  • If the win parameter is null, an error is returned,
  • If the chstr parameter is null, an error is returned,

Functions with a “mv” prefix first perform a cursor movement using wmove, and return an error if the position is outside the window, or if the window pointer is null.

Note that all routines except winchnstr may be macros. SVr4 does not document whether the result string is zero-terminated; it does not document whether a length limit argument includes any trailing 0; and it does not document the meaning of the return value.

These functions are described in the XSI Curses standard, Issue 4. It is no more specific than the SVr4 documentation on the trailing 0. It does specify that the successful return of the functions is OK.

ncurses(3NCURSES), inch(3NCURSES).

Comparable functions in the wide-character (ncursesw) library are described in in_wchstr(3NCURSES).