strcmp

Name

strcmp, strncmp
- compare two strings

Library

libc.lib

Synopsis

#include <string.h>

int strcmp (const char *s1, const char *s2);

int strncmp (const char *s1, const char *s2, size_t len);

Return values

The strcmp and strncmp return an integer greater than, equal to, or less than 0, according as the string s1 is greater than, equal to, or less than the string s2.

Detailed description

The strcmp and strncmp functions lexicographically compare the null-terminated strings s1 and s2.

The strncmp function compares not more than len characters. Because strncmp is designed for comparing strings rather than binary data, characters that appear after a ‘\0’ character are not compared.

Examples

#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
   char str1[]  = "abcdefg";
   char str2[] =  "abcdefr";
   int result;
   printf( "Compare '%s' to '%s\n", str1, str2 );
   result = strcmp( str1, str2);
   if( result < 0 )
      printf( "str1 is less than str2.\n" );
   else if( result == 0 )
      printf( "str1 is equal to str2.\n" );
   else if( result > 0 )
      printf( "str1 is greater than str2.\n" );
   printf( "Compare '%.6s' to '%.6s\n", str1, str2 );
   result = strncmp( str1, str2, 6 );
   if( result < 0 )
      printf( "str1 is less than str2.\n" );
   else if( result == 0 )
      printf( "str1 is equal to str2.\n" );
   else if( result > 0 )
      printf( "str1 is greater than str2.\n" );
   return 0;    
}

Output

Compare ’abcdefg’ to ’abcdefr
str1 is less than str2.
Compare ’abased’ to ’abcdef
str1 is equal to str2.

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