1.\" $OpenBSD: strcmp.3,v 1.14 2013/07/17 05:42:11 schwarze Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991 The Regents of the University of California. 4.\" All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 7.\" Chris Torek and the American National Standards Committee X3, 8.\" on Information Processing Systems. 9.\" 10.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 11.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 12.\" are met: 13.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 14.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 15.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 16.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 17.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 18.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 19.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 20.\" without specific prior written permission. 21.\" 22.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 23.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 24.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 25.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 26.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 27.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 28.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 29.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 30.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 31.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 32.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 33.\" 34.Dd $Mdocdate: July 17 2013 $ 35.Dt STRCMP 3 36.Os 37.Sh NAME 38.Nm strcmp , 39.Nm strncmp 40.Nd compare strings 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.In string.h 43.Ft int 44.Fn strcmp "const char *s1" "const char *s2" 45.Ft int 46.Fn strncmp "const char *s1" "const char *s2" "size_t len" 47.Sh DESCRIPTION 48The 49.Fn strcmp 50and 51.Fn strncmp 52functions lexicographically compare the NUL-terminated strings 53.Fa s1 54and 55.Fa s2 . 56The 57.Fn strncmp 58function compares at most 59.Fa len 60characters. 61.Sh RETURN VALUES 62The 63.Fn strcmp 64and 65.Fn strncmp 66functions return an integer greater than, equal to, or less than 0, according 67to whether the string 68.Fa s1 69is greater than, equal to, or less than the string 70.Fa s2 . 71The comparison is done using unsigned characters, so that 72.Ql \e200 73is greater than 74.Ql \e0 . 75.Sh SEE ALSO 76.Xr bcmp 3 , 77.Xr memcmp 3 , 78.Xr strcasecmp 3 , 79.Xr strcoll 3 , 80.Xr strxfrm 3 , 81.Xr wcscmp 3 82.Sh STANDARDS 83The 84.Fn strcmp 85and 86.Fn strncmp 87functions conform to 88.St -ansiC . 89.Sh HISTORY 90The 91.Fn strcmp 92function first appeared in the Programmer's Workbench (PWB/UNIX) 93and was ported to 94.At v7 ; 95.Fn strncmp 96first appeared in 97.At v7 . 98