Essential type of wchar_t?

[sca2012]

What is the essential category and rank of (implementation dependent) C99 type wchar_t?

[misra-c]

Appendix D.1 lists the mapping of standard types to essential type categories. wchar_t is an implementation-defined integer type. It will therefore map to either an essentially signed or unsigned type depending on the implementation. Its rank will be that of its implementation.

Future versions of the MISRA guidelines are likely to define a specific essential type for wchar_t.