char16_t

typedef uint_least16_t char16_t;

char16_t is an unsigned integer type used for 16-bit wide characters and is the same type as uint_least16_t.

Notes

On any given platform, by the definition of uint_least16_t, the width of type char16_t can be greater than 16 bits, but the actual values stored in an object of type char16_t will always have a width of 16 bits.

Example

#include <stdio.h>
#include <uchar.h>
 
int main(void)
{
    const char16_t wcs[] = u"zß水🍌"; // or "z\u00df\u6c34\U0001f34c"
    const size_t wcs_sz = sizeof wcs / sizeof *wcs;
    printf("%zu UTF-16 code units: [ ", wcs_sz);
    for (size_t n = 0; n < wcs_sz; ++n)
        printf("%#x ", wcs[n]);
    printf("]\n");
}

6 UTF-16 code units: [ 0x7a 0xdf 0x6c34 0xd83c 0xdf4c 0 ]

References

• C17 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2018):
• 7.28 Unicode utilities <uchar.h> (p: 292)
• 7.20.1.2 Minimum-width integer types (p: 212-213)
• C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):
• 7.28 Unicode utilities <uchar.h> (p: 398)
• 7.20.1.2 Minimum-width integer types (p: 290)
• C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):
• 7.18.1.2 Minimum-width integer types (p: 256)

See also