getc(3S) UNIX System V(C Development Set) getc(3S)
NAME
getc, getchar, fgetc, getw - get character or word from a stream
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdio.h>
int getc (FILE *stream);
int getchar (void);
int fgetc (FILE *stream);
int getw (FILE *stream);
DESCRIPTION
getc returns the next character (i.e., byte) from the named input stream
[see intro(3)] as an unsigned char converted to an int. It also moves
the file pointer, if defined, ahead one character in stream. getchar is
defined as getc(stdin). getc and getchar are macros.
fgetc behaves like getc, but is a function rather than a macro. fgetc
runs more slowly than getc, but it takes less space per invocation and
its name can be passed as an argument to a function.
getw returns the next word (i.e., integer) from the named input stream.
getw increments the associated file pointer, if defined, to point to the
next word. The size of a word is the size of an integer and varies from
machine to machine. getw assumes no special alignment in the file.
SEE ALSO
fclose(3S), ferror(3S), fopen(3S), fread(3S), gets(3S), putc(3S),
scanf(3S), stdio(3S), ungetc(3S).
DIAGNOSTICS
These functions return the constant EOF at end-of-file or upon an error
and set the EOF or error indicator of stream, respectively. Because EOF
is a valid integer, ferror should be used to detect getw errors.
NOTES
If the integer value returned by getc, getchar, or fgetc is stored into a
character variable and then compared against the integer constant EOF,
the comparison may never succeed, because sign-extension of a character
on widening to integer is implementation dependent.
The macro version of getc evaluates a stream argument more than once and
may treat side effects incorrectly. In particular, getc(*f++) does not
work sensibly. Use fgetc instead.
Because of possible differences in word length and byte ordering, files
written using putw are implementation dependent, and may not be read
using getw on a different processor.
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getc(3S) UNIX System V(C Development Set) getc(3S)
Functions exist for all the above-defined macros. To get the function
form, the macro name must be undefined (e.g., #undef getc).
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