curs_instr

Section: Miscellaneous Library Functions (3X)
Updated:
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NAME

instr, innstr, winstr, winnstr, mvinstr, mvinnstr, mvwinstr, mvwinnstr - get a string of characters from a curses window

SYNOPSIS

#include <curses.h>

int instr(char *str);
int innstr(char *str, int n);
int winstr(WINDOW *win, char *str);
int winnstr(WINDOW *win, char *str, int n);
int mvinstr(int y, int x, char *str);
int mvinnstr(int y, int x, char *str, int n);
int mvwinstr(WINDOW *win, int y, int x, char *str);
int mvwinnstr(WINDOW *win, int y, int x, char *str, int n);

DESCRIPTION

These routines return a string of characters in str, extracted starting at the current cursor position in the named window. Attributes are stripped from the characters. The four functions with n as the last argument return a leading substring at most n characters long (exclusive of the trailing NUL).

RETURN VALUE

All of the functions return ERR upon failure, or the number of characters actually read into the string.

X/Open Curses defines no error conditions. In this implementation:
.IP • 4 If the win parameter is null, an error is returned,
.IP • 4 If the chstr parameter is null, an error is returned,

Functions with a ``mv'' prefix first perform a cursor movement using wmove, and return an error if the position is outside the window, or if the window pointer is null.

NOTES

Note that all routines except winnstr may be macros.

PORTABILITY

SVr4 does not document whether a length limit includes or excludes the trailing NUL.

The ncurses library extends the XSI description by allowing a negative value for n. In this case, the functions return the string ending at the right margin.