NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     strsep - separate strings

LIBRARY    [Toc]    [Back]

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     #include <string.h>

     char *
     strsep(char **stringp, const char *delim);

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The strsep() function locates, in the null-terminated string referenced
     by *stringp, the first occurrence of any character in the string delim
     (or the terminating `\0' character) and replaces it with a `\0'.  The
     location of the next character after the delimiter character (or NULL, if
     the end of the string was reached) is stored in *stringp.  The original
     value of *stringp is returned.

     An ``empty'' field, i.e. one caused by two adjacent delimiter characters,
     can be detected by comparing the location referenced by the pointer
     returned in *stringp to `\0'.

     If *stringp is initially NULL, strsep() returns NULL.

EXAMPLES    [Toc]    [Back]

     The following uses strsep() to parse a string, containing tokens delimited
 by white space, into an argument vector:

           char **ap, *argv[10], *inputstring;

           for (ap = argv; (*ap = strsep(inputstring, " \t")) != NULL;)
                   if (**ap != '\0')
                           ++ap;

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     The strsep() function is intended as a replacement for the strtok() function.
  While the strtok() function should be preferred for portability
     reasons (it conforms to ANSI X3.159-1989 (``ANSI C'')) it is unable to
     handle empty fields, i.e. detect fields delimited by two adjacent delimiter
 characters, or to be used for more than a single string at a time.
     The strsep() function first appeared in 4.4BSD.

BSD                              June 9, 1993                              BSD