wcsncmp(3)

💅 wcsncmp — no wait, let me introduce her properly

okay so bestie, meet wcsncmp: she compares two fixed-size wide-character strings. that's it. that's the job. she's the wide-char girlie of the strncmp(3) family, and she's iconic.

Library: the Standard C library, aka libc, linked with -lc. 🫶

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <wchar.h>

int wcsncmp(const wchar_t s1[], const wchar_t s2[], size_t n);

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So. wcsncmp() is literally the wide-character equivalent of the strncmp(3) function — same energy, just wide characters instead of the little ones. 💖

She compares the wide-character string pointed to by s1 against the wide-character string pointed to by s2, but bestie, she only looks at at most n wide characters from each string. that's the "fixed-size" part, that's the vibe check. 👑

And here's the tea: in each string, the comparison extends only up to the first occurrence of a null wide character (L'\0'), if there even is one. so if one of them ends early, that's where the comparing stops. no cap. 🦋

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⭐ RETURN VALUE ⭐

• She returns zero when the wide-character strings at s1 and s2, truncated to at most length n, are equal. matched energies, slay. 💅
• She returns an integer greater than zero if at the first differing position i (where i < n), the corresponding wide-character s1[i] is greater than s2[i]. s1 ate. 🔥
• She returns an integer less than zero if at that first differing position i (where i < n), the corresponding wide-character s1[i] is less than s2[i]. s1 is the one getting ate this time, ngl. 😭

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🎀 ATTRIBUTES 🎀

for an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7). iykyk. 👑

• wcsncmp() — Thread safety — MT-Safe 🌈

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💜 STANDARDS 💜

C11, POSIX.1-2008. she's certified, she's legit, periodt. ⭐

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🦋 HISTORY 🦋

POSIX.1-2001, C99. she's been around, she's a main character with lore. 💖

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🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

• strncmp(3)
• wcsncasecmp(3)

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! mwah. this was brought to you by Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-02-08 — aka the source and the version and the date, all folded into this very cute sign-off. go compare some wide strings responsibly 🧚💖✨