WCSTOD(3P)

🦋 WCSTOD(3P) — bestie's guide to wide-char → number glow-ups 🦋

ok so first things first, this page is from the POSIX Programmer's Manual, and you're looking at WCSTOD(3P). sit down, grab a boba, we're doing this. 💖

---

💖 PROLOG 💖

Real talk before anything else: 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 actual Linux tea), or honestly the interface may not be implemented on Linux at all. 💀 not every platform shows up to the party, and that's just the vibes.

---

✨ NAME ✨

wcstod, wcstof, wcstold — convert a wide-character string to a double-precision number. it's giving "wide string goes in, float comes out" 💅

---

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <wchar.h>

double wcstod(const wchar_t *restrict nptr, wchar_t **restrict endptr);
float wcstof(const wchar_t *restrict nptr, wchar_t **restrict endptr);
long double wcstold(const wchar_t *restrict nptr,
    wchar_t **restrict endptr);

---

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

ok so the functionality 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 — no beef was intended, fr. This volume of POSIX.1‐2017 defers to the ISO C standard, so if there's drama, ISO C wins. periodt.

These functions shall convert the initial portion of the wide-character string pointed to by nptr to double, float, and long double representation, respectively. and like… how? first they shall decompose the input wide-character string into three parts:

1. An initial, possibly empty, sequence of white-space wide-character codes (as specified by iswspace())
2. A subject sequence interpreted as a floating-point constant or representing infinity or NaN
3. A final wide-character string of one or more unrecognized wide-character codes, including the terminating null wide-character code of the input wide-character string

then they shall attempt to convert the subject sequence to a floating-point number, and return the result. that's the whole arc. 🦋

The expected form of the subject sequence is an optional '+' or '-' sign, then one of the following:

• A non-empty sequence of decimal digits optionally containing a radix character; then an optional exponent part consisting of the wide character 'e' or the wide character 'E', optionally followed by a '+' or '-' wide character, and then followed by one or more decimal digits
• A 0x or 0X, then a non-empty sequence of hexadecimal digits optionally containing a radix character; then an optional binary exponent part consisting of the wide character 'p' or the wide character 'P', optionally followed by a '+' or '-' wide character, and then followed by one or more decimal digits
• One of INF or INFINITY, or any other wide string equivalent except for case
• One of NAN or NAN(n-wchar-sequenceopt), or any other wide string ignoring case in the NAN part, where:

n-wchar-sequence:
    digit
    nondigit
    n-wchar-sequence digit
    n-wchar-sequence nondigit

The subject sequence is defined as the longest initial subsequence of the input wide string, starting with the first non-white-space wide character, that is of the expected form. The subject sequence contains no wide characters if the input wide string is not of the expected form. so if it doesn't match, there's literally nothing there. empty. void. 💀

If the subject sequence has the expected form for a floating-point number, the sequence of wide characters starting with the first digit or the radix character (whichever occurs first) shall be interpreted as a floating constant according to the rules of the C language, except that the radix character shall be used in place of a period, and that if neither an exponent part nor a radix character appears in a decimal floating-point number, or if a binary exponent part does not appear in a hexadecimal floating-point number, an exponent part of the appropriate type with value zero shall be assumed to follow the last digit in the string. If the subject sequence begins with a <hyphen-minus>, the sequence shall be interpreted as negated. A wide-character sequence INF or INFINITY shall be interpreted as an infinity, if representable in the return type, else as if it were a floating constant that is too large for the range of the return type. A wide-character sequence NAN or NAN(n-wchar-sequenceopt) shall be interpreted as a quiet NaN, if supported in the return type, else as if it were a subject sequence part that does not have the expected form; the meaning of the n-wchar sequences is implementation-defined. A pointer to the final wide string shall be stored in the object pointed to by endptr, provided that endptr is not a null pointer. 👑

If the subject sequence has the hexadecimal form and FLT_RADIX is a power of 2, the conversion shall be rounded in an implementation-defined manner.

The radix character shall be as defined in the current locale (category LC_NUMERIC). In the POSIX locale, or in a locale where the radix character is not defined, the radix character shall default to a <period> ('.'). cute. 🍓

In other than the C or POSIX locale, additional locale-specific subject sequence forms may be accepted. (more forms = more chaos, but valid chaos.)

If the subject sequence is empty or does not have the expected form, no conversion shall be performed; the value of nptr shall be stored in the object pointed to by endptr, provided that endptr is not a null pointer.

These functions shall not change the setting of errno if successful. ✨

ok bestie this part matters: since 0 is returned on error and is also a valid return on success, an application wishing to check for error situations should set errno to 0, then call wcstod(), wcstof(), or wcstold(), then check errno. don't skip the vibe check. 🔍

---

🌈 RETURN VALUE 🌈

Upon successful completion, these functions shall return the converted value. If no conversion could be performed, 0 shall be returned and errno may be set to [EINVAL].

If the correct value is outside the range of representable values, ±HUGE_VAL, ±HUGE_VALF, or ±HUGE_VALL shall be returned (according to the sign of the value), and errno shall be set to [ERANGE]. that's the overflow moment. 😭

If the correct value would cause underflow, a value whose magnitude is no greater than the smallest normalized positive number in the return type shall be returned and errno set to [ERANGE].

---

💅 ERRORS 💅

The wcstod() function shall fail if:

• ERANGE — The value to be returned would cause overflow or underflow.

The wcstod() function may fail if:

• EINVAL — No conversion could be performed.

The following sections are informative.

---

🧚 EXAMPLES 🧚

None. (no examples, no notes, just vibes. the standard said "figure it out bestie" 🫶)

---

🔥 APPLICATION USAGE 🔥

If the subject sequence has the hexadecimal form and FLT_RADIX is not a power of 2, and the result is not exactly representable, the result should be one of the two numbers in the appropriate internal format that are adjacent to the hexadecimal floating source value, with the extra stipulation that the error should have a correct sign for the current rounding direction. so close to correct it's basically iconic, but the sign of the error still has to be right.

If the subject sequence has the decimal form and at most DECIMAL_DIG (defined in <float.h>) significant digits, the result should be correctly rounded. If the subject sequence D has the decimal form and more than DECIMAL_DIG significant digits, consider the two bounding, adjacent decimal strings L and U, both having DECIMAL_DIG significant digits, such that the values of L, D, and U satisfy "L<=D<=U". The result should be one of the (equal or adjacent) values that would be obtained by correctly rounding L and U according to the current rounding direction, with the extra stipulation that the error with respect to D should have a correct sign for the current rounding direction. 🎯

---

⭐ RATIONALE ⭐

None. (yes really. nothing. slay.)

---

🦄 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 🦄

None. (the future is unclear but the answer is still none 💜)

---

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• fscanf()
• iswspace()
• localeconv()
• setlocale()
• wcstol()

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 7, Locale, <float.h>, <wchar.h>

---

💖 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 .

---

ok that's the whole page bestie, you ate it up 🫶 this icon of a manual page came to you from IEEE/The Open Group, dated 2017, and its name is WCSTOD(3P) — go forth and convert those wide-character strings, no cap. 💖✨🎀