write-char (AutoLISP)

Writes one character to the screen or an open file

Supported Platforms: Windows and Mac OS

Signature

(write-char num [file-desc])

num

Type: Integer

The integer value in the range of 1-65536 representing the character to be written.

file-desc

Type: File

A file descriptor for an open file.

Return Values

Type: Integer

The num argument.

Release Information

Releases:

• AutoCAD R12 and later on Windows
• AutoCAD 2011 and later on Mac OS

History

AutoCAD 2021

• num argument previously accepted an ASCII character code in the range of 1-255, but now accepts an integer that represents a Unicode character code in the range of 1-65536.
• Return value was modified to support Unicode characters and might be different than earlier releases. For example, (write-char 128) previously returned "€", but now returns "". If you want to return "€", your code will need to be updated to (write-char 8364).

  (setq fp (open "E:\\test.txt" "w" "utf8"))
  (write-char fp 8364)
  8364

• LISPSYS system variable controls which AutoLISP engine is used and the behavior of the function.
  • 0 - ASCII character support (legacy behavior)
  • 1 or 2 - Unicode character support
  Note: After the value of the LISPSYS system variable has been changed, AutoCAD must be restarted for the change to take affect.

Examples

The following command writes the letter C to the command window, and returns the supplied num argument:

(write-char 67)
C67

Assuming that f is the descriptor for an open file, the following command writes the letter C to that file:

(write-char 67 f)
67

Note: write-char cannot write a NULL character (code 0) to a file.