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manual: Enhance documentation of the <ctype.h> functions
Describe the problems with signed characters, and the glibc extension to deal with most of them. Mention that the is* functions return zero for the special argument EOF. Reviewed-by: Carlos O'Donell <carlos@redhat.com>
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@ -40,21 +40,37 @@ one set works on @code{char} type characters, the other one on
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This section explains the library functions for classifying characters.
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For example, @code{isalpha} is the function to test for an alphabetic
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character. It takes one argument, the character to test, and returns a
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nonzero integer if the character is alphabetic, and zero otherwise. You
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would use it like this:
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character. It takes one argument, the character to test as an
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@code{unsigned char} value, and returns a nonzero integer if the
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character is alphabetic, and zero otherwise. You would use it like
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this:
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@smallexample
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if (isalpha (c))
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if (isalpha ((unsigned char) c))
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printf ("The character `%c' is alphabetic.\n", c);
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@end smallexample
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Each of the functions in this section tests for membership in a
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particular class of characters; each has a name starting with @samp{is}.
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Each of them takes one argument, which is a character to test, and
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returns an @code{int} which is treated as a boolean value. The
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character argument is passed as an @code{int}, and it may be the
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constant value @code{EOF} instead of a real character.
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Each of them takes one argument, which is a character to test. The
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character argument must be in the value range of @code{unsigned char} (0
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to 255 for @theglibc{}). On a machine where the @code{char} type is
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signed, it may be necessary to cast the argument to @code{unsigned
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char}, or mask it with @samp{& 0xff}. (On @code{unsigned char}
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machines, this step is harmless, so portable code should always perform
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it.) The @samp{is} functions return an @code{int} which is treated as a
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boolean value.
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All @samp{is} functions accept the special value @code{EOF} and return
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zero. (Note that @code{EOF} must not be cast to @code{unsigned char}
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for this to work.)
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As an extension, @theglibc{} accepts signed @code{char} values as
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@samp{is} functions arguments in the range -128 to -2, and returns the
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result for the corresponding unsigned character. However, as there
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might be an actual character corresponding to the @code{EOF} integer
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constant, doing so may introduce bugs, and it is recommended to apply
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the conversion to the unsigned character range as appropriate.
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The attributes of any given character can vary between locales.
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@xref{Locales}, for more information on locales.
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