Technical Reference: Base Operating System and Extensions, Volume 2

box Subroutine

Purpose

Draws borders from single-byte characters and renditions.

Library

Curses Library (libcurses.a)

Syntax

#include <curses.h>

int box(WINDOW *win, chtype verch, chtype horch);

Description

The box subroutine draws a border around the edges of the specified window. This subroutine does not advance the cursor position. This subroutine does not perform special character processing or perform wrapping.

The box subroutine (*win, verch, horch) has an effect equivalent to:

wborder(win, verch, verch, horch, horch, 0, 0, 0, 0);

Parameters

horch	Specifies the character to draw the horizontal lines of the box. The character must be a 1-column character.
verch	Specifies the character to draw the vertical lines of the box. The character must be a 1-column character.
*win	Specifies the window to draw the box in or around.

Return Values

Upon successful completion, the box function returns OK. Otherwise, it returns ERR.

Examples

To draw a box around the user-defined window, my_window, using | (pipe) as the vertical character and - (minus sign) as the horizontal character, enter:
```
WINDOW *my_window;
box(my_window, '|', '-');
```
To draw a box around my_window using the default characters ACS_VLINE and ACS_HLINE, enter:
```
WINDOW *my_window;
box(my_window, 0, 0);
```

Related Information

Curses Overview for Programming, List of Curses Subroutines, and Windows in the Curses Environment in AIX 5L Version 5.2 General Programming Concepts: Writing and Debugging Programs.