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<H1 class="no-header">curs_instr 3x 2025-10-20 ncurses 6.6 Library calls</H1>
<PRE>
<STRONG><A HREF="curs_instr.3x.html">curs_instr(3x)</A></STRONG> Library calls <STRONG><A HREF="curs_instr.3x.html">curs_instr(3x)</A></STRONG>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>instr</STRONG>, <STRONG>winstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvinstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvwinstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>innstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>winnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvinnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvwinnstr</STRONG>
- get a string from a <EM>curses</EM> window
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>instr(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>winstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvinstr(int</STRONG> <EM>y</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvwinstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>y</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>innstr(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>winnstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvinnstr(int</STRONG> <EM>y</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvwinnstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>y</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>winstr</STRONG> extracts a string from a <EM>curses</EM> window <EM>win</EM>, starting at the
cursor and stopping at the end of the line, and stores it in <EM>str</EM>,
terminating it with a null character and omitting any attributes and
color pair identifier that <EM>curses</EM> associates with each character.
<STRONG>winnstr</STRONG> does the same, but copies at most <EM>n</EM> characters from <EM>win</EM>. A
negative <EM>n</EM> implies no limit; <STRONG>winnstr</STRONG> then works like <STRONG>winstr</STRONG>.
<STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">ncurses(3x)</A></STRONG> describes the variants of these functions.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></H2><PRE>
These functions return the count of characters copied from <EM>win</EM> to <EM>str</EM>
(not including the null terminator), or <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> upon failure.
In <EM>ncurses</EM>, these functions fail if
<STRONG>o</STRONG> the <EM>curses</EM> screen has not been initialized,
<STRONG>o</STRONG> (for functions taking a <EM>WINDOW</EM> pointer argument) <EM>win</EM> is a null
pointer, or
<STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>str</EM> is a null pointer.
Functions prefixed with "mv" first perform cursor movement and fail if
the position (<EM>y</EM>, <EM>x</EM>) is outside the window boundaries.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-NOTES">NOTES</a></H2><PRE>
All of these functions except <STRONG>winnstr</STRONG> may be implemented as macros.
Reading a line that overflows the array pointed to by <EM>str</EM> with and its
variants causes undefined results. Instead, use the <EM>n</EM>-infixed
functions with a positive <EM>n</EM> argument no larger than the size of the
buffer backing <EM>str</EM>.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>innstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>winnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvinnstr</STRONG>, and <STRONG>mvwinnstr</STRONG>'s acceptance of negative <EM>n</EM>
values is an <EM>ncurses</EM> extension.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
Applications employing <EM>ncurses</EM> extensions should condition their use on
the visibility of the <STRONG>NCURSES_VERSION</STRONG> preprocessor macro.
X/Open Curses Issue 4 describes these functions. It specifies no error
conditions for them.
X/Open Curses Issues 4 and 7 both state that <EM>instr</EM>, <EM>winstr</EM>, <EM>mvinstr</EM>,
and <EM>mvwinstr</EM> return <EM>OK</EM> rather than a character count. This is likely
an erratum.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr3.1 and SVr4 implemented <EM>winstr</EM> as a wrapper around <EM>winnstr</EM>,
returning the latter's return value. X/Open Curses's specification
thus may have been an editorial solecism copied from System V's
documentation (see below) by X/Open, rather than an intentional
change.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>ncurses</EM> retains compatibility with System V <EM>curses</EM> behavior.
SVr4 describes a successful return value only as "an integer value
other than <EM>ERR</EM>".
SVr4 does not document whether <EM>n</EM> counts the null terminator that these
functions write to <EM>str</EM>.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></H2><PRE>
SVr3.1 (1987) introduced these functions.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG><A HREF="curs_inwstr.3x.html">curs_inwstr(3x)</A></STRONG> describes comparable functions of the <EM>ncurses</EM> library
in its wide-character configuration (<EM>ncursesw</EM>).
<STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_inch.3x.html">curs_inch(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_inchstr.3x.html">curs_inchstr(3x)</A></STRONG>
ncurses 6.6 2025-10-20 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_instr.3x.html">curs_instr(3x)</A></STRONG>
</PRE>
<div class="nav">
<ul>
<li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-NOTES">NOTES</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>
</ul>
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