[Go to CFHT Home Page] Man Pages
Back to Software Index  BORDER=0Manpage Top Level
    ctype(3C) manual page Table of Contents

Name

ctype, isdigit, isxdigit, islower, isupper, isalpha, isalnum, isspace, iscntrl, ispunct, isprint, isgraph, isascii - character handling

Synopsis

#include <ctype.h>

int isalpha(int c);

int isupper(int c);

int islower(int c);

int isdigit(int c);

int isxdigit(int c);

int isalnum(int c);

int isspace(int c);

int ispunct(int c);

int isprint(int c);

int isgraph(int c);

int iscntrl(int c);

int isascii(int c);

MT-Level

MT-Safe with exceptions

Description

These macros classify character-coded integer values. Each is a predicate returning non-zero for true, zero for false. The behavior of these macros, except isascii(), is affected by the current locale (see setlocale(3C) ). To modify the behavior, change the LC_TYPE category in setlocale(), that is, setlocale(LC_CTYPE , newlocale). In the C locale, or in a locale where character type information is not defined, characters are classified according to the rules of the US-ASCII 7-bit coded character set.

The macro isascii() is defined on all integer values; the rest are defined only where the argument is an int, the value of which is representable as an unsigned char, or EOF, which is defined by the stdio.h header and represents end-of-file.

isalpha()
tests for any character for which isupper() or islower() is true, or any character that is one of an implementation-defined set of characters for which none of iscntrl(), isdigit(), ispunct(), or isspace() is true. In the C locale, isalpha() returns true only for the characters for which isupper() or islower() is true.
isupper()
tests for any character that is an upper-case letter or is one of an implementation-defined set of characters for which none of iscntrl(), isdigit(), ispunct(), isspace(), or islower() is true. In the C locale, isupper() returns true only for the characters defined as upper-case ASCII characters.
islower()
tests for any character that is a lower-case letter or is one of an implementation-defined set of characters for which none of iscntrl(), isdigit(), ispunct(), isspace(), or isupper() is true. In the C locale, islower() returns true only for the characters defined as lower-case ASCII characters.
isdigit()
tests for any decimal-digit character.
isxdigit()
tests for any hexadecimal-digit character ([0-9], [A-F] or [a-f]).
isalnum()
tests for any character for which isalpha() or isdigit() is true (letter or digit).
isspace()
tests for any space, tab, carriage-return, newline, vertical-tab or form-feed (standard white-space characters) or for one of an implementation-defined set of characters for which isalnum() is false. In the C locale, isspace() returns true only for the standard white-space characters.
ispunct()
tests for any printing character which is neither a space nor a character for which isalnum() is true.
isprint()
tests for any printing character, including space (" ").
isgraph()
tests for any printing character, except space.
iscntrl()
tests for any ‘‘control character’’ as defined by the character set.
isascii()
tests for any ASCII character, code between 0 and 0177 inclusive.

All the character classification macros and the conversion functions and macros use a table lookup.

Functions exist for all the above-defined macros. To get the function form, the macro name must be undefined (for example, #undef isdigit).

Return Values

If the argument to any of the character handling macros is not in the domain of the function, the result is undefined.

Files

/usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_CTYPE

See Also

chrtbl(1M) , setlocale(3C) , stdio(3S) , ascii(5) , environ(5)

Notes

isdigit(), isxdigit(), islower(), isupper(), isalpha(), isalnum(), isspace(), iscntrl(), ispunct(), isprint(), isgraph() and isascii() can be used safely in a multi-thread application, as long as setlocale(3C) is not being called to change the locale.

Table of Contents