WCSCASECMP(3POSIX)

💖 WCSCASECMP — POSIX Programmer's Manual 💖

okay bestie, so this page is WCSCASECMP(3POSIX) from the POSIX Programmer's Manual ✨ come sit with me, we're doing case-insensitive wide-character string comparison today and honestly? it's giving so much more than it sounds 🦋

---

🌸 PROLOG 🌸

okay so first things first, and this is IMPORTANT: this manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ — like, consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details on Linux behavior, fr — or honestly the interface may just not be implemented on Linux at all 😭. vibe check your platform first, no cap.

---

🎀 NAME 🎀

wcscasecmp, wcscasecmp_l, wcsncasecmp, wcsncasecmp_l — case-insensitive wide-character string comparison 💅

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <wchar.h>

int wcscasecmp(const wchar_t *ws1, const wchar_t *ws2);
int wcscasecmp_l(const wchar_t *ws1, const wchar_t *ws2,
    locale_t locale);
int wcsncasecmp(const wchar_t *ws1, const wchar_t *ws2, size_t n);
int wcsncasecmp_l(const wchar_t *ws1, const wchar_t *ws2,
    size_t n, locale_t locale);

---

👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

so here's the tea ☕️ wcscasecmp() and wcsncasecmp() are literally the wide-character equivalent of strcasecmp() and strncasecmp(), respectively. same energy, wider chars 🫶

• wcscasecmp() and wcscasecmp_l() shall compare — while ignoring differences in case, periodt — the wide-character string pointed to by ws1 to the wide-character string pointed to by ws2.
• wcsncasecmp() and wcsncasecmp_l() shall compare, ignoring case, not more than n wide-characters from the string pointed to by ws1 to the string pointed to by ws2.

and the way they figure out "case"?? that's the plot twist 👀

• wcscasecmp() and wcsncasecmp() use the current locale to determine the case of the wide characters.
• wcscasecmp_l() and wcsncasecmp_l() use the locale represented by locale to determine the case of the wide characters.

okay so when the LC_CTYPE category of the locale being used is from the POSIX locale, these functions shall behave as if the wide-character strings had been converted to lowercase and then a comparison of wide-character codes performed. Otherwise?? the results are unspecified 💀 so like, don't come for them if you color outside the lines.

also, the info for wcscasecmp_l() and wcsncasecmp_l() about the case of the characters comes from the locale represented by locale. same thing said twice but she's thorough, okurrr 💅

🚨 undefined behavior alert, bestie, listen to me: the behavior is undefined if the locale argument to wcscasecmp_l() or wcsncasecmp_l() is the special locale object LC_GLOBAL_LOCALE or is not a valid locale object handle. not "a little weird", not "probably fine" — undefined. do not do it 🙈

---

🌈 RETURN VALUE 🌈

• Upon completion, wcscasecmp() and wcscasecmp_l() shall return an integer greater than, equal to, or less than 0 if the wide-character string pointed to by ws1 is, ignoring case, greater than, equal to, or less than the wide-character string pointed to by ws2, respectively. so: positive / zero / negative, and you already know what that means 😌
• Upon completion, wcsncasecmp() and wcsncasecmp_l() shall return an integer greater than, equal to, or less than 0 if the possibly null wide-character terminated string pointed to by ws1 is, ignoring case, greater than, equal to, or less than the possibly null wide-character terminated string pointed to by ws2, respectively. (yes, "possibly null wide-character terminated" — she's flexible like that ✨)

No return values are reserved to indicate an error. so like, don't go looking for one 💀

---

🦋 ERRORS 🦋

No errors are defined. iconic, unbothered, moisturized, in her lane 🌸

the following sections are informative, btw 👇

---

🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

None. 😭

---

💜 APPLICATION USAGE 💜

None. 🙈

---

⭐ RATIONALE ⭐

None. she said no thoughts, head empty, standard is standard 💅

---

🧚 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 🧚

None. ✨

---

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• strcasecmp()
• wcscmp()
• wcsncmp()

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, <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 .

---

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🫶 this lil beauty was brought to you by IEEE/The Open Group, 2017 — WCSCASECMP(3POSIX) — mwah, go write some case-insensitive wide-char comparisons, you ate 💅✨