wcscat(3)

✨ wcscat — concatenate two wide-character strings ✨

okay bestie, gather round, because we're about to glue two wide-character strings together and it's giving arts and crafts 🎀

This one lives in section 3 of the manual — like, Library Functions Manual energy — and it's wcscat, the wide-character string appender. 💖

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💖 LIBRARY

Standard C library — link it with libc, so toss -lc on your compile line and you're golden. 🫶

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✨ SYNOPSIS

#include <wchar.h>

wchar_t *wcscat(wchar_t *restrict dest, const wchar_t *restrict src);

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🌸 DESCRIPTION

So here's the tea, bestie: wcscat() is literally the wide-character glow-up of strcat(3). Same vibe, bigger characters. 👑

What it does: it takes the wide-character string that src is pointing at — and yes, including that terminating null wide character (L'\0') — and copies the whole thing onto the end of the wide-character string that dest is pointing at. Snip snip, paste paste, done. 💅

BIG one: the strings may not overlap. Do not try it. It's not a vibe. 🚫

And the responsibility check: the programmer (that's you, gorgeous) must make sure there's room for at least wcslen(dest)+wcslen(src)+1 wide characters sitting at dest. That +1? That's the null terminator's seat. Reserve it or regret it. 😭

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🌈 RETURN VALUE

wcscat() hands you back dest. That's it, that's the return value. Iconic, predictable, we love a function that returns exactly what you gave it. ✨

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🦋 ATTRIBUTES

Quick note: for a whole explanation of what these words even mean, go peek at attributes(7). 📖

• wcscat() — Thread safety: MT-Safe 💚

(That's the whole table, bestie — one row. Lowkey the easiest table I've ever read.)

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⭐ STANDARDS

C11, POSIX.1-2008. Certified, standardized, no cap. 🎀

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🧚 HISTORY

It's been around — POSIX.1-2001, C99. A true elder of the character-string world. 👑

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👑 SEE ALSO

Go bother the cousins, they've got lore too:

• strcat(3)
• wcpcpy(3)
• wcscpy(3)
• wcsncat(3)

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mwah 💋 — this page came straight out of Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-02-08. Stay safe out there, terminate your strings, and never overlap them. byeee 🦋✨