# curs_inchstr 3x 2025-08-16 ncurses 6.5 Library calls

    curs_inchstr(3x)                 Library calls                curs_inchstr(3x)

## NAME

           inchstr,   inchnstr,   winchstr,   winchnstr,   mvinchstr,  mvinchnstr,
           mvwinchstr, mvwinchnstr - get a curses character string from a window

## SYNOPSIS

           #include <curses.h>

           int inchstr(chtype * chstr);
           int inchnstr(chtype * chstr, int n);
           int winchstr(WINDOW * win, chtype * chstr);
           int winchnstr(WINDOW * win, chtype * chstr, int n);

           int mvinchstr(int y, int x, chtype * chstr);
           int mvinchnstr(int y, int x, chtype * chstr, int n);
           int mvwinchstr(WINDOW * win, int y, int x, chtype * chstr);
           int mvwinchnstr(WINDOW * win, int y, int x, chtype * chstr,
               int n);

## DESCRIPTION

           winchstr extracts a curses character string from a curses  window  win,
           starting  at the cursor and stopping at the end of the line, and stores
           it in chstr, terminating it with a null  curses  character.   winchnstr
           does  the  same,  but  copies  at most n curses characters from win.  A
           negative n implies  no  limit;  winchnstr  then  works  like  winchstr.
           ncurses(3x) describes the variants of these functions.

## RETURN VALUE

           These functions return OK on success and ERR on failure.

           In ncurses, these functions fail if

           o   the curses screen has not been initialized,

           o   (for  functions  taking  a  WINDOW  pointer argument) win is a null
               pointer, or

           o   chstr is a null pointer.

           Functions prefixed with "mv" first perform cursor movement and fail  if
           the position (y, x) is outside the window boundaries.

## NOTES

           All of these functions except winchnstr may be implemented as macros.

           Reading  a  line  that  overflows the array pointed to by chstr and its
           variants  causes  undefined  results.   Instead,  use   the   n-infixed
           functions  with  a  positive  n argument no larger than the size of the
           buffer backing chstr.

## EXTENSIONS

           inchnstr,  winchnstr,  mvinchnstr,  and  mvwinchnstr's  acceptance   of
           negative n values is an ncurses extension.

## PORTABILITY

           Applications employing ncurses extensions should condition their use on
           the visibility of the NCURSES_VERSION preprocessor macro.

           X/Open Curses Issue 4 describes these functions.  It specifies no error
           conditions  for  them.   It  characterizes  the strings stored by these
           functions as containing "at most n elements" from a  window,  but  does
           not  specify  whether  the  string  stored  by these functions is null-
           terminated.

           SVr4 does not document whether it null-terminates the curses  character
           string  it  stores  in  chstr, and does not document whether a trailing
           null curses character counts toward the length limit n.

           SVr4 describes a successful return value  only  as  "an  integer  value
           other than ERR".

## HISTORY

           SVr3.1 (1987) introduced these functions.

## SEE ALSO

           curs_in_wchstr(3x)   describes  comparable  functions  of  the  ncurses
           library in its wide-character configuration (ncursesw).

           curses(3x), curs_inch(3x), curs_inwstr(3x)

    ncurses 6.5                       2025-08-16                  curs_inchstr(3x)