.th GETCHAR III 4/7/73 .sh NAME getchar \*- read character .sh SYNOPSIS .ft B getchar( ) .br .ft R .sh DESCRIPTION .it Getchar provides the simplest means of reading characters from the standard input for C programs. It returns successive characters until end-of-file, when it returns ``\\0''. .s3 Associated with this routine is an external variable called \fIfin\fR, which is a structure containing a buffer such as described under \fIgetc\fR (III). .s3 Generally speaking, .it getchar should be used only for the simplest applications; .it getc is better when there are multiple input files. .sh "SEE ALSO" getc (III) .sh DIAGNOSTICS Null character returned on EOF or error. .sh BUGS \*-1 should be returned on EOF; null is a legitimate character.