###### (This is the legacy documentation for SDL2, the previous stable version; [SDL3](https://wiki.libsdl.org/SDL3/) is the current stable version.)
# SDL_GetDefaultAudioInfo

Get the name and preferred format of the default audio device.

## Header File

Defined in [SDL_audio.h](https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/blob/SDL2/include/SDL_audio.h)

## Syntax

```c
int SDL_GetDefaultAudioInfo(char **name,
                            SDL_AudioSpec *spec,
                            int iscapture);
```

## Function Parameters

|                                  |               |                                                                                                                                                   |
| -------------------------------- | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| char **                          | **name**      | A pointer to be filled with the name of the default device (can be NULL). Please call [SDL_free](SDL_free)() when you are done with this pointer! |
| [SDL_AudioSpec](SDL_AudioSpec) * | **spec**      | The [SDL_AudioSpec](SDL_AudioSpec) to be initialized by this function.                                                                            |
| int                              | **iscapture** | non-zero to query the default recording device, zero to query the default output device.                                                          |

## Return Value

(int) Returns 0 on success, nonzero on error.

## Remarks

Some (but not all!) platforms have an isolated mechanism to get information
about the "default" device. This can actually be a completely different
device that's not in the list you get from
[SDL_GetAudioDeviceSpec](SDL_GetAudioDeviceSpec)(). It can even be a
network address! (This is discussed in
[SDL_OpenAudioDevice](SDL_OpenAudioDevice)().)

As a result, this call is not guaranteed to be performant, as it can query
the sound server directly every time, unlike the other query functions. You
should call this function sparingly!

`spec` will be filled with the sample rate, sample format, and channel
count, if a default device exists on the system. If `name` is provided,
will be filled with either a dynamically-allocated UTF-8 string or NULL.

## Version

This function is available since SDL 2.24.0.

## See Also

- [SDL_GetAudioDeviceName](SDL_GetAudioDeviceName)
- [SDL_GetAudioDeviceSpec](SDL_GetAudioDeviceSpec)
- [SDL_OpenAudioDevice](SDL_OpenAudioDevice)

----
[CategoryAPI](CategoryAPI), [CategoryAPIFunction](CategoryAPIFunction), [CategoryAudio](CategoryAudio)