# <stdmchar.h>

**[<stdmchar.h>](https://en.cppreference.com/w/c/header/stdmchar)** is a proposed C header (C2y/C3x) designed to fix Unicode handling deficiencies in `<wchar.h>` and `<uchar.h>` with cleaner, safer APIs. As of C23, it is not yet standardized and compilers do not ship it.

When standardized, it will provide portable UTF-8 to local encoding transcoding without platform-specific APIs.

## Example

This is a placeholder for when the header becomes available; `<uchar.h>` is the current portable Unicode solution.

```c
// <stdmchar.h> is not yet in the C standard.
// For now, use <uchar.h> or POSIX iconv for Unicode transcoding.
```

## Common proposed functions

When `<stdmchar.h>` is standardized, it is expected to provide:

- **Unicode normalization**: NFC, NFD, NFKC, NFKD forms
- **String validation**: UTF-8 validation without conversion
- **Locale-aware encoding**: multi-character to local encoding conversion
- **Bidirectional text**: support for RTL text handling
- **Grapheme clustering**: extended grapheme boundary detection

**Current alternatives**:
- `<uchar.h>`: UTF-32 and UTF-16 conversion
- POSIX `iconv()`: arbitrary encoding conversion
- ICU library: comprehensive Unicode support