WCSCOLL(3P)

✨ PROLOG ✨

Okay bestie, real talk first 💖 this manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (so like, go consult the corresponding Linux manual page for the deets on Linux behavior), or honestly the interface may not even be implemented on Linux. Vibe check accordingly 🫶

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🌸 NAME 🌸

wcscoll, wcscoll_l — wide-character string comparison using collating information

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

#include <wchar.h>

int wcscoll(const wchar_t *ws1, const wchar_t *ws2);
int wcscoll_l(const wchar_t *ws1, const wchar_t *ws2,
    locale_t locale);

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So for wcscoll(), bestie: the functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the ISO C standard. Any conflict between the requirements described here and the ISO C standard is unintentional — nobody's trying to start drama. This volume of POSIX.1‐2017 defers to the ISO C standard, periodt.

The wcscoll() and wcscoll_l() functions shall compare the wide-character string pointed to by ws1 to the wide-character string pointed to by ws2, and both of them get interpreted as appropriate to the LC_COLLATE category of the current locale, or of the locale represented by locale, respectively. Yes, that's the whole flex. 💁

Also iconic: wcscoll() and wcscoll_l() shall not change the setting of errno if they're successful. Not touching it. Hands off. ✋

An application wishing to check for error situations should set errno to 0 before calling wcscoll() or wcscoll_l(). Then if errno is non-zero on return, an error has occurred. That's your little vibe check right there 🔍

🚨 Undefined behavior alert 🚨 The behavior is undefined if the locale argument to wcscoll_l() is the special locale object LC_GLOBAL_LOCALE or is not a valid locale object handle. Do not do this. It's giving chaos. 💀

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⭐ RETURN VALUE ⭐

Upon successful completion, wcscoll() and wcscoll_l() shall return an integer greater than, equal to, or less than 0, according to whether the wide-character string pointed to by ws1 is greater than, equal to, or less than the wide-character string pointed to by ws2, when both are interpreted as appropriate to the current locale, or to the locale represented by locale, respectively.

On error, wcscoll() and wcscoll_l() shall set errno, but heads up: no return value is reserved to indicate an error. So you literally cannot tell from the return value alone. That's why the errno pre-game matters, bestie 😭

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🔥 ERRORS 🔥

These functions may fail if:

• EINVAL — The ws1 or ws2 arguments contain wide-character codes outside the domain of the collating sequence.

The following sections are informative.

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🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

None. (Nothing to see here, moving on, we love a minimalist moment 💜)

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🌈 APPLICATION USAGE 🌈

Real practical tea: the wcsxfrm() and wcscmp() functions should be used for sorting large lists. Like, if you're sorting a whole big list, don't do it this way. Do it that way. Trust. 👑

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🧚 RATIONALE 🧚

None.

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👑 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 👑

None.

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🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

• wcscmp()
• wcsxfrm()
• The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, <wchar.h>

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💖 COPYRIGHT 💖

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

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And that's the whole page, bestie!! 💖✨ This masterpiece came to you from IEEE/The Open Group, dated 2017, and it lives under the name WCSCOLL(3P) in the POSIX Programmer's Manual. Slay, stay collated, and go set your errno to 0 like the responsible main character you are 🎀🦋💅