curs\_delch(3X) Library calls curs\_delch(3X)

# [NAME](#NAME)

**delch**, **wdelch**, **mvdelch**, **mvwdelch** - delete a character from a *curses* window

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

```
#include <curses.h>
```

```
int delch(void);
int wdelch(WINDOW * win);
int mvdelch(int y, int x);
int mvwdelch(WINDOW * win, int y, int x);
```

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

**wdelch** deletes the character at the cursor position in *win*. It moves all characters to the right of the cursor on the same line to the left one position and replaces the contents of the rightmost position on the line with the window's background character; see [**bkgd**(3X)](/man/os/ncurses/bkgd.3X) (wide-character API users: [**bkgrnd**(3X)](/man/os/ncurses/bkgrnd.3X)). The cursor position does not change (after moving to (*y*, *x*), if specified). [**ncurses**(3X)](/man/os/ncurses/ncurses.3X) describes the variants of this function.

# [RETURN VALUE](#RETURN_VALUE)

These functions return **OK** on success and **ERR** on failure.

In *ncurses*, these functions fail if

- the *curses* screen has not been initialized, or
- (for functions taking a *WINDOW* pointer argument) *win* is a null pointer.

Functions prefixed with “mv” first perform cursor movement and fail if the position (*y*, *x*) is outside the window boundaries.

# [NOTES](#NOTES)

**delch**, **mvdelch**, and **mvwdelch** may be implemented as macros.

A terminal's **delete\_character** (**dch1**) capability is not necessarily employed.

# [PORTABILITY](#PORTABILITY)

X/Open Curses Issue 4 describes these functions. It specifies no error conditions for them.

SVr4 describes a successful return value only as “an integer value other than *ERR*”.

# [HISTORY](#HISTORY)

SVr2 (1984) introduced *wdelch*.

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[**curses**(3X)](/man/os/ncurses/curses.3X)

2025-04-05 ncurses 6.6

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Document: delch(3x) from ncurses 6.6.20261017-r0 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/ThomasDickey/ncurses-snapshots