xref: /netbsd/lib/libc/string/strsep.3 (revision bf9ec67e)
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35.\"     from: @(#)strsep.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
36.\"	$NetBSD: strsep.3,v 1.10 2002/02/07 09:24:07 ross Exp $
37.\"
38.Dd June 9, 1993
39.Dt STRSEP 3
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm strsep
43.Nd separate strings
44.Sh LIBRARY
45.Lb libc
46.Sh SYNOPSIS
47.Fd #include \*[Lt]string.h\*[Gt]
48.Ft char *
49.Fn strsep "char **stringp" "const char *delim"
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Fn strsep
53function locates, in the null-terminated string referenced by
54.Fa *stringp ,
55the first occurrence of any character in the string
56.Fa delim
57(or the terminating
58.Ql \e0
59character) and replaces it with a
60.Ql \e0 .
61The location of the next character after the delimiter character
62(or NULL, if the end of the string was reached) is stored in
63.Fa *stringp .
64The original value of
65.Fa *stringp
66is returned.
67.Pp
68An ``empty'' field, i.e. one caused by two adjacent delimiter characters,
69can be detected by comparing the location referenced by the pointer returned
70in
71.Fa *stringp
72to
73.Ql \e0 .
74.Pp
75If
76.Fa *stringp
77is initially
78.Dv NULL ,
79.Fn strsep
80returns
81.Dv NULL .
82.Sh EXAMPLES
83The following uses
84.Fn strsep
85to parse a string, containing tokens delimited by white space, into an
86argument vector:
87.Bd -literal -offset indent
88char **ap, *argv[10], *inputstring;
89
90for (ap = argv; (*ap = strsep(\*[Am]inputstring, " \et")) != NULL;)
91	if (**ap != '\e0')
92		++ap;
93.Ed
94.Sh HISTORY
95The
96.Fn strsep
97function
98is intended as a replacement for the
99.Fn strtok
100function.
101While the
102.Fn strtok
103function should be preferred for portability reasons (it conforms to
104.St -ansiC )
105it is unable to handle empty fields, i.e. detect fields delimited by
106two adjacent delimiter characters, or to be used for more than a single
107string at a time.
108The
109.Fn strsep
110function first appeared in
111.Bx 4.4 .
112