EC_INTERACT_PRINT_COLS(3)

💖 EC_INTERACT_PRINT_COLS(3) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the Libecoli Programmer's Manual ✨ this one lives in section 3 and it's literally called ec_interact_print_cols, and it's about making your completion matches look cute in columns. yes. that's the whole vibe. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

ec_interact_print_cols — print completion matches as columns 🦋

like, you got a big ol' pile of matches and you want them laid out all neat and pretty instead of one sad string per line. that's her. that's the function. 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <ecoli/interact.h>

int ec_interact_print_cols(
    FILE                *out,      /* The pointer to the output stream. */
    unsigned int         width,    /* The number of columns on terminal. */
    char const *const   *matches,  /* The string array of matches to display. */
    size_t               n         /* The size of the array. */
);

so you pull in <ecoli/interact.h> and then you call her with four things, no more no less 👑

• out — the pointer to the output stream 💖 this is where the column-y goodness gets written.
• width — the number of columns on terminal 📐 like, how wide is the party. unsigned int energy.
• matches — the string array of matches to display 🌈 a char const *const *, so, a pointer to const pointers to const chars. she's const in both directions. untouchable. iconic.
• n — the size of the array 🔢 a size_t, because obviously.

and the whole thing returns an int. we'll get to that. 🫶

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⭐ RETURN VALUE ⭐

0 on success, or -1 on error.

that's it. that's the deal. zero means slay, negative one means something went wrong and we're crying 😭 no in-between, no gray area, periodt.

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

okay so this function does NOT exist in a vacuum, she has a whole friend group, and you should lowkey meet all of them 💜:

• ec_interact_get_completions(3)
• ec_interact_print_helps(3)
• ec_interact_print_error_helps(3)
• ec_interact_set_help(3)
• ec_interact_append_chars(3)
• ec_interact_set_desc(3)
• ec_interact_get_callback(3)
• ec_interact_set_callback(3)
• ec_interact_get_error_helps(3)
• ec_interact_free_completions(3)
• ec_interact_get_helps(3)
• ec_interact_free_helps(3)

twelve whole friends. main character energy across the board fr fr 🔥

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright (C) 2010-2026 Olivier Matz, Robin Jarry.

respect the authors bestie, they built this 💖

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libecoli · 2026-06-11 · EC_INTERACT_PRINT_COLS(3)

and that's the page!! go print some columns, you absolute legend 🌟 iykyk 💅✨🦋🌸🎀🫶