On Linux, i686, the sizeof(wchar_t) == 4 bytes. 4294967295 characters can be stored in wchar_t. Wow! What is the reason for such huge size? Ryszard Kabatek Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg Department of Physical Chemistry Geusaer Str. 88, 06217 Merseburg, Germany Tel. +49 3461 46 2487 Fax. +49 3461 46 2129 e-mail: kabatek@chemie.uni-halle.de