xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/string/strstr.3 (revision 1669d8afc64812c8d2d1d147ae1fd42ff441e1b1)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2001 Mike Barcroft <mike@FreeBSD.org>
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33.\"     @(#)strstr.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
34.\" $FreeBSD$
35.\"
36.Dd October 11, 2001
37.Dt STRSTR 3
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm strstr , strcasestr , strnstr
41.Nd locate a substring in a string
42.Sh LIBRARY
43.Lb libc
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.In string.h
46.Ft char *
47.Fn strstr "const char *big" "const char *little"
48.Ft char *
49.Fn strcasestr "const char *big" "const char *little"
50.Ft char *
51.Fn strnstr "const char *big" "const char *little" "size_t len"
52.Sh DESCRIPTION
53The
54.Fn strstr
55function
56locates the first occurrence of the null-terminated string
57.Fa little
58in the null-terminated string
59.Fa big .
60.Pp
61The
62.Fn strcasestr
63function is similar to
64.Fn strstr ,
65but ignores the case of both strings.
66.Pp
67The
68.Fn strnstr
69function
70locates the first occurrence of the null-terminated string
71.Fa little
72in the string
73.Fa big ,
74where not more than
75.Fa len
76characters are searched.
77Characters that appear after a
78.Ql \e0
79character are not searched.
80Since the
81.Fn strnstr
82function is a
83.Fx
84specific API, it should only be used when portability is not a concern.
85.Sh RETURN VALUES
86If
87.Fa little
88is an empty string,
89.Fa big
90is returned;
91if
92.Fa little
93occurs nowhere in
94.Fa big ,
95.Dv NULL
96is returned;
97otherwise a pointer to the first character of the first occurrence of
98.Fa little
99is returned.
100.Sh EXAMPLES
101The following sets the pointer
102.Va ptr
103to the
104.Qq Li Bar Baz
105portion of
106.Va largestring :
107.Bd -literal -offset indent
108const char *largestring = "Foo Bar Baz";
109const char *smallstring = "Bar";
110char *ptr;
111
112ptr = strstr(largestring, smallstring);
113.Ed
114.Pp
115The following sets the pointer
116.Va ptr
117to
118.Dv NULL ,
119because only the first 4 characters of
120.Va largestring
121are searched:
122.Bd -literal -offset indent
123const char *largestring = "Foo Bar Baz";
124const char *smallstring = "Bar";
125char *ptr;
126
127ptr = strnstr(largestring, smallstring, 4);
128.Ed
129.Sh SEE ALSO
130.Xr memchr 3 ,
131.Xr memmem 3 ,
132.Xr strchr 3 ,
133.Xr strcspn 3 ,
134.Xr strpbrk 3 ,
135.Xr strrchr 3 ,
136.Xr strsep 3 ,
137.Xr strspn 3 ,
138.Xr strtok 3
139.Sh STANDARDS
140The
141.Fn strstr
142function
143conforms to
144.St -isoC .
145