_strnset, _strnset_l, _wcsnset, _wcsnset_l, _mbsnset, _mbsnset_l

Initializes characters of a string to a given character. More secure versions of these functions exist; see _strnset_s, _strnset_s_l, _wcsnset_s, _wcsnset_s_l, _mbsnset_s, _mbsnset_s_l.

Important

_mbsnset and _mbsnset_l cannot be used in applications that execute in the Windows Runtime. For more information, see CRT functions not supported in Universal Windows Platform apps.

Syntax

char *_strnset(
   char *str,
   int c,
   size_t count
);
char *_strnset_l(
   char *str,
   int c,
   size_t count,
   _locale_t locale
);
wchar_t *_wcsnset(
   wchar_t *str,
   wchar_t c,
   size_t count
);
wchar_t *_wcsnset_l(
   wchar_t *str,
   wchar_t c,
   size_t count,
   _locale_t locale
);
unsigned char *_mbsnset(
   unsigned char *str,
   unsigned int c,
   size_t count
);
unsigned char *_mbsnset_l(
   unsigned char *str,
   unsigned int c,
   size_t count,
   _locale_t locale
);

Parameters

str
String to be altered.

c
Character setting.

count
Number of characters to be set.

locale
Locale to use.

Return value

Returns a pointer to the altered string.

Remarks

The _strnset function sets, at most, the first count characters of str to c (converted to char). If count is greater than the length of str, the length of str is used instead of count.

_wcsnset and _mbsnset are wide-character and multibyte-character versions of _strnset. The string arguments and return value of _wcsnset are wide-character strings. The string arguments and return value of _mbsnset are multibyte-character strings. These three functions behave identically otherwise.

_mbsnset validates its parameters; if str is a null pointer, the invalid parameter handler is invoked, as described in Parameter validation . If execution is allowed to continue, _mbsnset returns NULL and sets errno to EINVAL. _strnset and _wcsnset don't validate their parameters.

The output value is affected by the setting of the LC_CTYPE category setting of the locale. For more information, see setlocale. The versions of these functions without the _l suffix use the current locale for this locale-dependent behavior; the versions with the _l suffix are identical except that they use the locale parameter passed in instead. For more information, see Locale.

By default, this function's global state is scoped to the application. To change this behavior, see Global state in the CRT.

Generic-text routine mappings

TCHAR.H routine	_UNICODE and _MBCS not defined	_MBCS defined	_UNICODE defined
_tcsnset	_strnset	_mbsnbset	_wcsnset
_tcsnset_l	_strnset_l	_mbsnbset_l	_wcsnset_l

Requirements

Routine	Required header
_strnset	<string.h>
_strnset_l	<tchar.h>
_wcsnset	<string.h> or <wchar.h>
_wcsnset_l	<tchar.h>
_mbsnset, _mbsnset_l	<mbstring.h>

For more compatibility information, see Compatibility.

Example

// crt_strnset.c
// compile with: /W3
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main( void )
{
   char string[15] = "This is a test";
   /* Set not more than 4 characters of string to be *'s */
   printf( "Before: %s\n", string );
   _strnset( string, '*', 4 ); // C4996
   // Note: _strnset is deprecated; consider using _strnset_s
   printf( "After:  %s\n", string );
}

Before: This is a test
After:  **** is a test

See also

String manipulation
Locale
Interpretation of multibyte-character sequences
strcat, wcscat, _mbscat
strcmp, wcscmp, _mbscmp
strcpy, wcscpy, _mbscpy
_strset, _strset_l, _wcsset, _wcsset_l, _mbsset, _mbsset_l