iscntrl

 

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Functions
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isalnum isalpha islower isupper isdigit isxdigit isblank (C99)	iscntrl isgraph isspace isprint ispunct tolower toupper
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atoiatolatoll (C99) atof strtolstrtoll (C99) strtoulstrtoull (C99)	strtoimaxstrtoumax (C99)(C99) strtofstrtodstrtold (C99)(C99) strfromfstrfromdstrfroml (C23)(C23)(C23)
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strerrorstrerror_sstrerrorlen_s (C11)(C11)

 

Defined in header <ctype.h>
int iscntrl( int ch );

Checks if the given character is a control character, i.e., codes [0x00, 0x1F] and 0x7F.

The behavior is undefined if the value of ch is not representable as unsigned char and is not equal to EOF.

Parameters

ch

-

character to classify

Return value

Non-zero value if the character is a control character, zero otherwise.

Example

Run this code

#include <ctype.h>
#include <locale.h>
#include <stdio.h>
 
int main(void)
{
    unsigned char c = '\x94'; // the control code CCH in ISO-8859-1
    printf("In the default C locale, \\x94 is %sa control character\n",
           iscntrl(c) ? "" : "not " );
    setlocale(LC_ALL, "en_GB.iso88591");
    printf("In ISO-8859-1 locale, \\x94 is %sa control character\n",
           iscntrl(c) ? "" : "not " );
}

Possible output:

In the default C locale, \x94 is not a control character
In ISO-8859-1 locale, \x94 is a control character

References

• C23 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2024):

• 7.4.1.4 The iscntrl function (p: TBD)

• C17 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2018):

• 7.4.1.4 The iscntrl function (p: 146)

• C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

• 7.4.1.4 The iscntrl function (p: 201)

• C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

• 7.4.1.4 The iscntrl function (p: 182)

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

• 4.3.1.3 The iscntrl function

See also

iswcntrl (C95)	checks if a wide character is a control character (function)
C++ documentation for iscntrl

ASCII values			characters	iscntrl iswcntrl	isprint iswprint	isspace iswspace	isblank iswblank	isgraph iswgraph	ispunct iswpunct	isalnum iswalnum	isalpha iswalpha	isupper iswupper	islower iswlower	isdigit iswdigit	isxdigit iswxdigit
decimal	hexadecimal	octal
0–8	\x0–\x8	\0–\10	control codes (NUL, etc.)	≠0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	\x9	\11	tab (\t)	≠0	0	≠0	≠0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10–13	\xA–\xD	\12–\15	whitespaces (\n, \v, \f, \r)	≠0	0	≠0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
14–31	\xE–\x1F	\16–\37	control codes	≠0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
32	\x20	\40	space	0	≠0	≠0	≠0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
33–47	\x21–\x2F	\41–\57	!"#$%&'()*+,-./	0	≠0	0	0	≠0	≠0	0	0	0	0	0	0
48–57	\x30–\x39	\60–\71	0123456789	0	≠0	0	0	≠0	0	≠0	0	0	0	≠0	≠0
58–64	\x3A–\x40	\72–\100	:;<=>?@	0	≠0	0	0	≠0	≠0	0	0	0	0	0	0
65–70	\x41–\x46	\101–\106	ABCDEF	0	≠0	0	0	≠0	0	≠0	≠0	≠0	0	0	≠0
71–90	\x47–\x5A	\107–\132	GHIJKLMNOP QRSTUVWXYZ	0	≠0	0	0	≠0	0	≠0	≠0	≠0	0	0	0
91–96	\x5B–\x60	\133–\140	[\]^_`	0	≠0	0	0	≠0	≠0	0	0	0	0	0	0
97–102	\x61–\x66	\141–\146	abcdef	0	≠0	0	0	≠0	0	≠0	≠0	0	≠0	0	≠0
103–122	\x67–\x7A	\147–\172	ghijklmnop qrstuvwxyz	0	≠0	0	0	≠0	0	≠0	≠0	0	≠0	0	0
123–126	\x7B–\x7E	\173–\176	{|}~	0	≠0	0	0	≠0	≠0	0	0	0	0	0	0
127	\x7F	\177	backspace character (DEL)	≠0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0