getchar

 

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File input/output

Types and objects
FILE fpos_t      stdinstdoutstderr
Functions
File access fopenfopen_s (C11) freopenfreopen_s (C11) fwide (C95) setbuf setvbuf fclose fflush Direct input/output fread fwrite Unformatted input/output fgetc fgets fputc fputs getchar getsgets_s (until C11)(C11) putchar puts ungetc fgetwcgetwc (C95)(C95) fgetws (C95) fputwcputwc (C95)(C95) fputws (C95) getwchar (C95) putwchar (C95) ungetwc (C95) Formatted input scanffscanfsscanfscanf_sfscanf_ssscanf_s (C11)(C11)(C11) wscanffwscanfswscanfwscanf_sfwscanf_sswscanf_s (C95)(C95)(C95)(C11)(C11)(C11)     vscanfvfscanfvsscanfvscanf_svfscanf_svsscanf_s (C99)(C99)(C99)(C11)(C11)(C11) vwscanfvfwscanfvswscanfvwscanf_svfwscanf_svswscanf_s (C99)(C99)(C99)(C11)(C11)(C11)	Formatted output printffprintfsprintfsnprintfprintf_sfprintf_ssprintf_ssnprintf_s (C99)(C11)(C11)(C11)(C11) wprintffwprintfswprintfwprintf_sfwprintf_sswprintf_ssnwprintf_s (C95)(C95)(C95)(C11)(C11)(C11)(C11)     vprintfvfprintfvsprintfvsnprintfvprintf_svfprintf_svsprintf_svsnprintf_s (C99)(C11)(C11)(C11)(C11) vwprintfvfwprintfvswprintfvwprintf_svfwprintf_svswprintf_svsnwprintf_s (C95)(C95)(C95)(C11)(C11)(C11)(C11) File positioning ftell fgetpos fseek fsetpos rewind Error handling clearerr feof ferror perror Operations on files remove rename tmpfiletmpfile_s (C11) tmpnamtmpnam_s (C11)

 

Defined in header <stdio.h>
int getchar( void );

Reads the next character from stdin.

Equivalent to getc(stdin).

Parameters

(none)

Return value

The obtained character on success or EOF on failure.

If the failure has been caused by end-of-file condition, additionally sets the eof indicator (see feof()) on stdin. If the failure has been caused by some other error, sets the error indicator (see ferror()) on stdin.

Example

Demonstrates getchar with error checking

Run this code

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
 
int main(void)
{
    for (int ch; (ch = getchar()) != EOF;) // read/print "abcde" from stdin
        printf("%c", ch);
 
    // Test reason for reaching EOF.
    if (feof(stdin)) // if failure caused by end-of-file condition
        puts("End of file reached");
    else if (ferror(stdin)) // if failure caused by some other error
    {
        perror("getchar()");
        fprintf(stderr, "getchar() failed in file %s at line # %d\n",
                __FILE__, __LINE__ - 9);
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
 
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Possible output:

abcde
End of file reached

References

• C23 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2024):

• 7.21.7.6 The getchar function (p: TBD)

• C17 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2018):

• 7.21.7.6 The getchar function (p: TBD)

• C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

• 7.21.7.6 The getchar function (p: 332)

• C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

• 7.19.7.6 The getchar function (p: 298)

• C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):

• 4.9.7.6 The getchar function

See also

fgetcgetc	gets a character from a file stream (function)
C++ documentation for getchar