xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/string/strsep.3 (revision 3706af423ff257540dfe88bcb91fb0ab54e60946)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
5.\" Chris Torek.
6.\"
7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
9.\" are met:
10.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
11.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
13.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
14.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
15.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
16.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
17.\"    without specific prior written permission.
18.\"
19.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
20.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
21.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
22.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
23.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
24.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
25.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
26.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
27.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
28.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
29.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
30.\"
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	err(1, "strdup");
91while ((token = strsep(&string, ",")) != NULL)
92	printf("%s\en", token);
93
94free(tofree);
95.Ed
96.Pp
97The following uses
98.Fn strsep
99to parse a string, containing tokens delimited by white space, into an
100argument vector:
101.Bd -literal -offset indent
102char **ap, *argv[10], *inputstring;
103
104for (ap = argv; (*ap = strsep(&inputstring, " \et")) != NULL;)
105	if (**ap != '\e0')
106		if (++ap >= &argv[10])
107			break;
108.Ed
109.Sh SEE ALSO
110.Xr memchr 3 ,
111.Xr strchr 3 ,
112.Xr strcspn 3 ,
113.Xr strpbrk 3 ,
114.Xr strrchr 3 ,
115.Xr strspn 3 ,
116.Xr strstr 3 ,
117.Xr strtok 3
118.Sh HISTORY
119The
120.Fn strsep
121function
122is intended as a replacement for the
123.Fn strtok
124function.
125While the
126.Fn strtok
127function should be preferred for portability reasons (it conforms to
128.St -isoC )
129it is unable to handle empty fields, i.e., detect fields delimited by
130two adjacent delimiter characters, or to be used for more than a single
131string at a time.
132The
133.Fn strsep
134function first appeared in
135.Bx 4.4 .
136