# std::mblen

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< cpp‎ | string‎ | multibyte

Defined in header `<cstdlib>` |  |
int mblen( const char* s, std::size_t n ); |  |

Determines the size, in bytes, of the multibyte character whose first byte is pointed to by s.

If s is a null pointer, resets the global conversion state and determines whether shift sequences are used.

This function is equivalent to the call std::mbtowc (nullptr, s, n), except that conversion state of std::mbtowc is unaffected.

### Notes

Each call to `mblen` updates the internal global conversion state (a static object of type std::mbstate_t, only known to this function). If the multibyte encoding uses shift states, care must be taken to avoid backtracking or multiple scans. In any case, multiple threads should not call `mblen` without synchronization: std::mbrlen may be used instead.

### Parameters

s | - | pointer to the multibyte character
n | - | limit on the number of bytes in s that can be examined

### Return value

If s is not a null pointer, returns the number of bytes that are contained in the multibyte character or -1 if the first bytes pointed to by s do not form a valid multibyte character or ​0​ if s is pointing at the null character '\0'.

If s is a null pointer, resets its internal conversion state to represent the initial shift state and returns ​0​ if the current multibyte encoding is not state-dependent (does not use shift sequences) or a non-zero value if the current multibyte encoding is state-dependent (uses shift sequences).

### Example

Run this code

    #include <clocale>
    #include <cstdlib>
    #include <iomanip>
    #include <iostream>
    #include <stdexcept>
    #include <string_view>

    // the number of characters in a multibyte string is the sum of mblen()'s
    // note: the simpler approach is std::mbstowcs(nullptr, s.c_str(), s.size())
    std::size_t strlen_mb(const std::string_view s)
    {
        std::mblen(nullptr, 0); // reset the conversion state
        std::size_t result = 0;
        const char* ptr = s.data();
        for (const char* const end = ptr + s.size(); ptr < end; ++result)
        {
            const int next = std::mblen(ptr, end - ptr);
            if (next == -1)
                throw std::runtime_error("strlen_mb(): conversion error");
            ptr += next;
        }
        return result;
    }

    void dump_bytes(const std::string_view str)
    {
        std::cout << std::hex << std::uppercase << std::setfill('0');
        for (unsigned char c : str)
            std::cout << std::setw(2) << static_cast<int>(c) << ' ';
        std::cout << std::dec << '\n';
    }

    int main()
    {
        // allow mblen() to work with UTF-8 multibyte encoding
        std::setlocale(LC_ALL, "en_US.utf8");
        // UTF-8 narrow multibyte encoding
        const std::string_view str = "z\u00df\u6c34\U0001f34c"; // or u8"zß水🍌"
        std::cout << std::quoted(str) << " is " << strlen_mb(str)
                  << " characters, but as much as " << str.size() << " bytes: ";
        dump_bytes(str);
    }

Possible output:

    "zß水🍌" is 4 characters, but as much as 10 bytes: 7A C3 9F E6 B0 B4 F0 9F 8D 8C

### See also

mbtowc | converts the next multibyte character to wide character (function)
mbrlen | returns the number of bytes in the next multibyte character, given state (function)
C documentation for mblen

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