wscanf, fwscanf, swscanf, wscanf_s, fwscanf_s, swscanf_s

Defined in header `<wchar.h>`
int wscanf( const wchar_t* format, ... );	(1)	(since C95) (until C99)
int wscanf( const wchar_t* restrict format, ... );	(1)		(since C99)
int fwscanf( FILE* stream, const wchar_t* format, ... );	(2)	(since C95) (until C99)
int fwscanf( FILE* restrict stream, const wchar_t* restrict format, ... );	(2)		(since C99)
int swscanf( const wchar_t* buffer, const wchar_t* format, ... );	(3)	(since C95) (until C99)
int swscanf( const wchar_t* restrict buffer, const wchar_t* restrict format, ... );	(3)		(since C99)
int wscanf_s( const wchar_t* restrict format, ...);	(4)	(since C11)
int fwscanf_s( FILE* restrict stream, const wchar_t* restrict format, ...);	(5)	(since C11)
int swscanf_s( const wchar_t* restrict s, const wchar_t* restrict format, ...);	(6)	(since C11)

Reads data from the a variety of sources, interprets it according to format and stores the results into given locations.

1) Reads the data from stdin.

2) Reads the data from file stream stream.

3) Reads the data from null-terminated wide string buffer. Reaching the end of the string is equivalent to reaching the end-of-file condition for fwscanf

4-6) Same as (1-3), except that %c, %s, and %[ conversion specifiers each expect two arguments (the usual pointer and a value of type rsize_t indicating the size of the receiving array, which may be 1 when reading with a %lc into a single wide character) and except that the following errors are detected at runtime and call the currently installed constraint handler function:

any of the arguments of pointer type is a null pointer
format, stream, or buffer is a null pointer
the number of characters that would be written by %c, %s, or %[, plus the terminating null character, would exceed the second (rsize_t) argument provided for each of those conversion specifiers
optionally, any other detectable error, such as unknown conversion specifier

As all bounds-checked functions, wscanf_s, fwscanf_s, and swscanf_s are only guaranteed to be available if __STDC_LIB_EXT1__ is defined by the implementation and if the user defines __STDC_WANT_LIB_EXT1__ to the integer constant 1 before including <wchar.h>.

Parameters

stream	-	input file stream to read from
buffer	-	pointer to a null-terminated wide string to read from
format	-	pointer to a null-terminated wide string specifying how to read the input
...	-	receiving arguments.

The format string consists of

non-whitespace wide characters except %: each such character in the format string consumes exactly one identical character from the input stream, or causes the function to fail if the next character on the stream does not compare equal.
whitespace characters: any single whitespace character in the format string consumes all available consecutive whitespace characters from the input (determined as if by calling iswspace in a loop). Note that there is no difference between "\n", " ", "\t\t", or other whitespace in the format string.
conversion specifications. Each conversion specification has the following format:

introductory % character.
(optional) assignment-suppressing character *. If this option is present, the function does not assign the result of the conversion to any receiving argument.
(optional) integer number (greater than zero) that specifies maximum field width, that is, the maximum number of characters that the function is allowed to consume when doing the conversion specified by the current conversion specification. Note that %s and %[ may lead to buffer overflow if the width is not provided.
(optional) length modifier that specifies the size of the receiving argument, that is, the actual destination type. This affects the conversion accuracy and overflow rules. The default destination type is different for each conversion type (see table below).
conversion format specifier.

The following format specifiers are available:

Conversion specifier	Explanation	Expected Argument type
Length Modifier→		`hh`	`h`	none	`l`	`ll`	`j`	`z`	`t`	`L`
Only available since C99→		Yes				Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
`%`	Matches literal `%`.	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
`c`	Matches a character or a sequence of characters. If a width specifier is used, matches exactly width wide characters (the argument must be a pointer to an array with sufficient room). Unlike %s and %[, does not append the null character to the array.	N/A	N/A	char*	wchar_t*	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
`s`	Matches a sequence of non-whitespace characters (a string). If width specifier is used, matches up to width or until the first whitespace character, whichever appears first. Always stores a null character in addition to the characters matched (so the argument array must have room for at least width+1 characters).
`[`set `]`	Matches a non-empty sequence of character from set of characters. If the first character of the set is `^`, then all characters not in the set are matched. If the set begins with `]` or `^]` then the `]` character is also included into the set. It is implementation-defined whether the character `-` in the non-initial position in the scanset may be indicating a range, as in `[0-9]`. If width specifier is used, matches only up to width. Always stores a null character in addition to the characters matched (so the argument array must have room for at least width+1 characters).
`d`	Matches a decimal integer. The format of the number is the same as expected by `wcstol` with the value `10` for the `base` argument.	signedchar* or unsignedchar*	signedshort* or unsignedshort*	signedint* or unsignedint*	signedlong* or unsignedlong*	signedlonglong* or unsignedlonglong*	intmax_t* or uintmax_t*	size_t*	ptrdiff_t*	N/A
`b` (C23)	Matches an unsigned binary integer. The format of the number is the same as expected by `wcstoul` with the value `2` for the `base` argument.
`i`	Matches an integer. The format of the number is the same as expected by `wcstol` with the value `0` for the `base` argument (base is determined by the first characters parsed).
`u`	Matches an unsigned decimal integer. The format of the number is the same as expected by `wcstoul` with the value `10` for the `base` argument.
`o`	Matches an unsigned octal integer. The format of the number is the same as expected by `wcstoul` with the value `8` for the `base` argument.
`x` `X`	Matches an unsigned hexadecimal integer. The format of the number is the same as expected by `wcstoul` with the value `16` for the `base` argument.
`n`	Returns the number of characters read so far. No input is consumed. Does not increment the assignment count. If the specifier has assignment-suppressing operator defined, the behavior is undefined.
`a` (C99) `A` (C99) `e` `E` `f` `F` (C99) `g` `G`	Matches a floating-point number. The format of the number is the same as expected by `wcstof`.	N/A	N/A	float*	double*	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	longdouble*
`p`	Matches implementation defined character sequence defining a pointer. `printf` family of functions should produce the same sequence using `%p` format specifier.	N/A	N/A	void**	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Notes
For every conversion specifier other than `n`, the longest sequence of input characters which does not exceed any specified ﬁeld width and which either is exactly what the conversion specifier expects or is a prefix of a sequence it would expect, is what's consumed from the stream. The ﬁrst character, if any, after this consumed sequence remains unread. If the consumed sequence has length zero or if the consumed sequence cannot be converted as specified above, the matching failure occurs unless end-of-ﬁle, an encoding error, or a read error prevented input from the stream, in which case it is an input failure. Except for the `%` specifier, the input item (or, for `%n`, the count of input characters) is first converted to a type appropriate to the conversion specifier. Unless assignment was suppressed with `*`, the result of the conversion is written into the object pointed to by the next argument that wasn't yet written to. If this object does not have an appropriate type, or if the result of the conversion cannot be represented in the object, the behavior is undefined. All conversion specifiers other than `[`, `c`, and `n` consume and discard all leading whitespace characters (determined as if by calling `iswspace`) before attempting to parse the input. These consumed characters do not count towards the specified maximum field width. If the length specifier `l` is not used, the conversion specifiers `c`, `s`, and `[` perform wide-to-multibyte character conversion as if by calling `wcrtomb` with an `mbstate_t` object initialized to zero before the first character is converted. The conversion specifiers `s` and `[` always store the null terminator in addition to the matched characters. The size of the destination array must be at least one greater than the specified field width. The use of `%s` or `%[`, without specifying the destination array size, is as unsafe as `gets`. The correct conversion specifications for the fixed-width integer types (`int8_t`, etc) are defined in the header `<inttypes.h>` (although `SCNdMAX`, `SCNuMAX`, etc is synonymous with `%jd`, `%ju`, etc). There is a sequence point after the action of each conversion specifier; this permits storing multiple fields in the same “sink” variable. When parsing an incomplete floating-point value that ends in the exponent with no digits, such as parsing `"100er"` with the conversion specifier `%f`, the sequence `"100e"` (the longest prefix of a possibly valid floating-point number) is consumed, resulting in a matching error (the consumed sequence cannot be converted to a floating-point number), with `"r"` remaining. Some existing implementations do not follow this rule and roll back to consume only `"100"`, leaving `"er"`, e.g., glibc bug 1765. If a conversion specification is invalid, the behavior is undefined.

Return value

1-3) Number of receiving arguments successfully assigned, or EOF if read failure occurs before the first receiving argument was assigned.

4-6) Same as (1-3), except that EOF is also returned if there is a runtime constraint violation.

Example

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <wchar.h>

#define NUM_VARS   3
#define ERR_READ   2
#define ERR_WRITE  3

int main(void)
{
    wchar_t state[64];
    wchar_t capital[64];
    unsigned int population = 0;
    int elevation = 0;
    int age = 0;
    float pi = 0;

#if INTERACTIVE_MODE
    wprintf(L"Enter state, age, and pi value: ");
    if (wscanf(L"%ls%d%f", state, &age, &pi) != NUM_VARS)
    {
        fprintf(stderr, "Error reading input.\n");
        return ERR_READ;
    }
#else
    wchar_t* input = L"California 170 3.141592";
    if (swscanf(input, L"%ls%d%f", state, &age, &pi) != NUM_VARS)
    {
        fprintf(stderr, "Error reading input.\n");
        return ERR_READ;
    }
#endif
    wprintf(L"State: %ls\nAge  : %d years\nPi   : %.5f\n\n", state, age, pi);

    FILE* fp = tmpfile();
    if (fp)
    {
        // write some data to temp file
        if (!fwprintf(fp, L"Mississippi Jackson 420000 807"))
        {
            fprintf(stderr, "Error writing to file.\n");
            fclose(fp);
            return ERR_WRITE;
        }
        // rewind file pointer
        rewind(fp);

        // read data into variables
        fwscanf(fp, L"%ls%ls%u%d", state, capital, &population, &elevation);
        wprintf(L"State  : %ls\nCapital: %ls\nJackson population (in 2020): %u\n"
                L"Highest elevation: %dft\n",
                state, capital, population, elevation);
        fclose(fp);
    }
}

Possible output:

State: California
Age  : 170 years
Pi   : 3.14159

State  : Mississippi
Capital: Jackson
Jackson population (in 2020): 420000
Highest elevation: 807ft

References

C23 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2024):

7.29.2.2 The fwscanf function (p: TBD)
7.29.2.4 The swscanf function (p: TBD)
7.29.2.12 The wscanf function (p: TBD)
K.3.9.1.2 The fwscanf_s function (p: TBD)
K.3.9.1.5 The swscanf_s function (p: TBD)
K.3.9.1.14 The wscanf_s function (p: TBD)

C17 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2018):

7.29.2.2 The fwscanf function (p: TBD)
7.29.2.4 The swscanf function (p: TBD)
7.29.2.12 The wscanf function (p: TBD)
K.3.9.1.2 The fwscanf_s function (p: TBD)
K.3.9.1.5 The swscanf_s function (p: TBD)
K.3.9.1.14 The wscanf_s function (p: TBD)

C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

7.29.2.2 The fwscanf function (p: 410-416)
7.29.2.4 The swscanf function (p: 417)
7.29.2.12 The wscanf function (p: 421)
K.3.9.1.2 The fwscanf_s function (p: 628-629)
K.3.9.1.5 The swscanf_s function (p: 631)
K.3.9.1.14 The wscanf_s function (p: 638)

C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

7.24.2.2 The fwscanf function (p: 356-362)
7.24.2.4 The swscanf function (p: 362)
7.24.2.12 The wscanf function (p: 366-367)

vwscanfvfwscanfvswscanfvwscanf_svfwscanf_svswscanf_s (C99)(C99)(C99)(C11)(C11)(C11)	reads formatted wide character input from `stdin`, a file stream or a buffer using variable argument list (function)
C++ documentation for `wscanf, fwscanf, swscanf`

wscanf, fwscanf, swscanf, wscanf_s, fwscanf_s, swscanf_s

Parameters

Return value

Example

References

See also