send function (winsock2.h)

The send function sends data on a connected socket.

Syntax

int WSAAPI send(
  [in] SOCKET     s,
  [in] const char *buf,
  [in] int        len,
  [in] int        flags
);

Parameters

[in] s

A descriptor identifying a connected socket.

[in] buf

A pointer to a buffer containing the data to be transmitted.

[in] len

The length, in bytes, of the data in buffer pointed to by the buf parameter.

[in] flags

A set of flags that specify the way in which the call is made. This parameter is constructed by using the bitwise OR operator with any of the following values.

Return value

If no error occurs, send returns the total number of bytes sent, which can be less than the number requested to be sent in the len parameter. Otherwise, a value of SOCKET_ERROR is returned, and a specific error code can be retrieved by calling WSAGetLastError.

Remarks

The send function is used to write outgoing data on a connected socket.

For message-oriented sockets (address family of AF_INET or AF_INET6, type of SOCK_DGRAM, and protocol of IPPROTO_UDP, for example), care must be taken not to exceed the maximum packet size of the underlying provider. The maximum message packet size for a provider can be obtained by calling getsockopt with the optname parameter set to SO_MAX_MSG_SIZE to retrieve the value of socket option. If the data is too long to pass atomically through the underlying protocol, the error WSAEMSGSIZE is returned, and no data is transmitted.

The successful completion of a send function does not indicate that the data was successfully delivered and received to the recipient. This function only indicates the data was successfully sent.

If no buffer space is available within the transport system to hold the data to be transmitted, send will block unless the socket has been placed in nonblocking mode. On nonblocking stream oriented sockets, the number of bytes written can be between 1 and the requested length, depending on buffer availability on both the client and server computers. The select, WSAAsyncSelect or WSAEventSelect functions can be used to determine when it is possible to send more data.

Calling send with a len parameter of zero is permissible and will be treated by implementations as successful. In such cases, send will return zero as a valid value. For message-oriented sockets, a zero-length transport datagram is sent.

The flags parameter can be used to influence the behavior of the function beyond the options specified for the associated socket. The semantics of the send function are determined by any options previously set on the socket specified in the s parameter and the flags parameter passed to the send function.

The order of calls made to send is also the order in which the buffers are transmitted to the transport layer. send should not be called on the same stream-oriented socket concurrently from different threads, because some Winsock providers may split a large send request into multiple transmissions, and this may lead to unintended data interleaving from multiple concurrent send requests on the same stream-oriented socket.

Example Code

#ifndef UNICODE
#define UNICODE
#endif

#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN

#include <winsock2.h>
#include <Ws2tcpip.h>
#include <stdio.h>

// Link with ws2_32.lib
#pragma comment(lib, "Ws2_32.lib")

#define DEFAULT_BUFLEN 512
#define DEFAULT_PORT 27015

int main() {

    //----------------------
    // Declare and initialize variables.
    int iResult;
    WSADATA wsaData;

    SOCKET ConnectSocket = INVALID_SOCKET;
    struct sockaddr_in clientService; 

    int recvbuflen = DEFAULT_BUFLEN;
    char *sendbuf = "Client: sending data test";
    char recvbuf[DEFAULT_BUFLEN] = "";

    //----------------------
    // Initialize Winsock
    iResult = WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(2,2), &wsaData);
    if (iResult != NO_ERROR) {
        wprintf(L"WSAStartup failed with error: %d\n", iResult);
        return 1;
    }

    //----------------------
    // Create a SOCKET for connecting to server
    ConnectSocket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP);
    if (ConnectSocket == INVALID_SOCKET) {
        wprintf(L"socket failed with error: %ld\n", WSAGetLastError());
        WSACleanup();
        return 1;
    }

    //----------------------
    // The sockaddr_in structure specifies the address family,
    // IP address, and port of the server to be connected to.
    clientService.sin_family = AF_INET;
    clientService.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr( "127.0.0.1" );
    clientService.sin_port = htons( DEFAULT_PORT );

    //----------------------
    // Connect to server.
    iResult = connect( ConnectSocket, (SOCKADDR*) &clientService, sizeof(clientService) );
    if (iResult == SOCKET_ERROR) {
        wprintf(L"connect failed with error: %d\n", WSAGetLastError() );
        closesocket(ConnectSocket);
        WSACleanup();
        return 1;
  }

    //----------------------
    // Send an initial buffer
    iResult = send( ConnectSocket, sendbuf, (int)strlen(sendbuf), 0 );
    if (iResult == SOCKET_ERROR) {
        wprintf(L"send failed with error: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());
        closesocket(ConnectSocket);
        WSACleanup();
        return 1;
    }

    printf("Bytes Sent: %d\n", iResult);

    // shutdown the connection since no more data will be sent
    iResult = shutdown(ConnectSocket, SD_SEND);
    if (iResult == SOCKET_ERROR) {
        wprintf(L"shutdown failed with error: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());
        closesocket(ConnectSocket);
        WSACleanup();
        return 1;
    }

    // Receive until the peer closes the connection
    do {

        iResult = recv(ConnectSocket, recvbuf, recvbuflen, 0);
        if ( iResult > 0 )
            wprintf(L"Bytes received: %d\n", iResult);
        else if ( iResult == 0 )
            wprintf(L"Connection closed\n");
        else
            wprintf(L"recv failed with error: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());

    } while( iResult > 0 );


    // close the socket
    iResult = closesocket(ConnectSocket);
    if (iResult == SOCKET_ERROR) {
        wprintf(L"close failed with error: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());
        WSACleanup();
        return 1;
    }

    WSACleanup();
    return 0;
}

Example Code

Notes for IrDA Sockets

• The Af_irda.h header file must be explicitly included.

Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2: This function is supported for Windows Store apps on Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, and later.

Requirements

See also

Getting Started With Winsock

WSAAsyncSelect

WSAEventSelect

Winsock Functions

Winsock Reference

recv

recvfrom

select

sendto

socket