xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/string/strsep.3 (revision b00ab754)
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31.\"	@(#)strsep.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
32.\" $FreeBSD$
33.\"
34.Dd May 28, 2018
35.Dt STRSEP 3
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm strsep
39.Nd separate strings
40.Sh LIBRARY
41.Lb libc
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.In string.h
44.Ft char *
45.Fn strsep "char **stringp" "const char *delim"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Fn strsep
49function locates, in the string referenced by
50.Fa *stringp ,
51the first occurrence of any character in the string
52.Fa delim
53(or the terminating
54.Ql \e0
55character) and replaces it with a
56.Ql \e0 .
57The location of the next character after the delimiter character
58(or NULL, if the end of the string was reached) is stored in
59.Fa *stringp .
60The original value of
61.Fa *stringp
62is returned.
63.Pp
64An
65.Dq empty
66field (i.e., a character in the string
67.Fa delim
68occurs as the first character of
69.Fa *stringp )
70can be detected by comparing the location referenced by the returned pointer
71to
72.Ql \e0 .
73.Pp
74If
75.Fa *stringp
76is initially
77.Dv NULL ,
78.Fn strsep
79returns
80.Dv NULL .
81.Sh EXAMPLES
82The following uses
83.Fn strsep
84to parse a string, and prints each token in separate line:
85.Bd -literal -offset indent
86char *token, *string, *tofree;
87
88tofree = string = strdup("abc,def,ghi");
89if (string != NULL)
90	while ((token = strsep(&string, ",")) != NULL)
91		printf("%s\en", token);
92
93free(tofree);
94.Ed
95.Pp
96The following uses
97.Fn strsep
98to parse a string, containing tokens delimited by white space, into an
99argument vector:
100.Bd -literal -offset indent
101char **ap, *argv[10], *inputstring;
102
103for (ap = argv; (*ap = strsep(&inputstring, " \et")) != NULL;)
104	if (**ap != '\e0')
105		if (++ap >= &argv[10])
106			break;
107.Ed
108.Sh SEE ALSO
109.Xr memchr 3 ,
110.Xr strchr 3 ,
111.Xr strcspn 3 ,
112.Xr strpbrk 3 ,
113.Xr strrchr 3 ,
114.Xr strspn 3 ,
115.Xr strstr 3 ,
116.Xr strtok 3
117.Sh HISTORY
118The
119.Fn strsep
120function
121is intended as a replacement for the
122.Fn strtok
123function.
124While the
125.Fn strtok
126function should be preferred for portability reasons (it conforms to
127.St -isoC )
128it is unable to handle empty fields, i.e., detect fields delimited by
129two adjacent delimiter characters, or to be used for more than a single
130string at a time.
131The
132.Fn strsep
133function first appeared in
134.Bx 4.4 .
135