xref: /openbsd/lib/libc/string/strsep.3 (revision a873166d)
1.\" $OpenBSD: strsep.3,v 1.4 1998/06/15 17:55:14 mickey Exp $
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37.\"	@(#)strsep.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
38.\"
39.Dd June 9, 1993
40.Dt STRSEP 3
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm strsep
44.Nd separate strings
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Fd #include <string.h>
47.Ft char *
48.Fn strsep "char **stringp" "char *delim"
49.Sh DESCRIPTION
50The
51.Fn strsep
52function locates, in the string referenced by
53.Fa *stringp ,
54the first occurrence of any character in the string
55.Fa delim
56(or the terminating
57.Ql \e0
58character) and replaces it with a
59.Ql \e0 .
60The location of the next character after the delimiter character
61(or NULL, if the end of the string was reached) is stored in
62.Fa *stringp .
63The original value of
64.Fa *stringp
65is returned.
66.Pp
67An ``empty'' field, i.e. one caused by two adjacent delimiter characters,
68can be detected by comparing the location referenced by the pointer returned
69in
70.Fa *stringp
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, containing tokens delimited by white space, into an
85argument vector:
86.Bd -literal -offset indent
87char **ap, *argv[10], *inputstring;
88
89for (ap = argv; (*ap = strsep(&inputstring, " \et")) != NULL;)
90	if (**ap != '\e0')
91		++ap;
92.Ed
93.Sh HISTORY
94The
95.Fn strsep
96function
97is intended as a replacement for the
98.Fn strtok
99function.
100While the
101.Fn strtok
102function should be preferred for portability reasons (it conforms to
103.St -ansiC )
104it is unable to handle empty fields, i.e. detect fields delimited by
105two adjacent delimiter characters, or to be used for more than a single
106string at a time.
107The
108.Fn strsep
109function first appeared in
110.Bx 4.4 .
111