xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/string/memcmp.3 (revision 5956d97f4b3204318ceb6aa9c77bd0bc6ea87a41)
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32.\"     @(#)memcmp.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd August 15, 2016
36.Dt MEMCMP 3
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm memcmp
40.Nd compare byte string
41.Sh LIBRARY
42.Lb libc
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.In string.h
45.Ft int
46.Fn memcmp "const void *b1" "const void *b2" "size_t len"
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48The
49.Fn memcmp
50function
51compares byte string
52.Fa b1
53against byte string
54.Fa b2 .
55Both strings are assumed to be
56.Fa len
57bytes long.
58.Sh RETURN VALUES
59The
60.Fn memcmp
61function
62returns zero if the two strings are identical,
63otherwise returns the difference between the first two differing bytes
64(treated as
65.Vt "unsigned char"
66values, so that
67.Sq Li \e200
68is greater than
69.Sq Li \&\e0 ,
70for example).
71Zero-length strings are always identical.
72.Sh SEE ALSO
73.Xr bcmp 3 ,
74.Xr strcasecmp 3 ,
75.Xr strcmp 3 ,
76.Xr strcoll 3 ,
77.Xr strxfrm 3 ,
78.Xr timingsafe_memcmp 3 ,
79.Xr wmemcmp 3
80.Sh STANDARDS
81The
82.Fn memcmp
83function
84conforms to
85.St -isoC .
86