xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/string/strstr.3 (revision 41466b50c1d5bfd1cf6adaae547a579a75d7c04e)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2001 Mike Barcroft <mike@FreeBSD.org>
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37.\"     @(#)strstr.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
38.\" $FreeBSD$
39.\"
40.Dd October 11, 2001
41.Dt STRSTR 3
42.Os
43.Sh NAME
44.Nm strstr , strcasestr , strnstr
45.Nd locate a substring in a string
46.Sh LIBRARY
47.Lb libc
48.Sh SYNOPSIS
49.In string.h
50.Ft char *
51.Fn strstr "const char *big" "const char *little"
52.Ft char *
53.Fn strcasestr "const char *big" "const char *little"
54.Ft char *
55.Fn strnstr "const char *big" "const char *little" "size_t len"
56.Sh DESCRIPTION
57The
58.Fn strstr
59function
60locates the first occurrence of the null-terminated string
61.Fa little
62in the null-terminated string
63.Fa big .
64.Pp
65The
66.Fn strcasestr
67function is similar to
68.Fn strstr ,
69but ignores the case of both strings.
70.Pp
71The
72.Fn strnstr
73function
74locates the first occurrence of the null-terminated string
75.Fa little
76in the string
77.Fa big ,
78where not more than
79.Fa len
80characters are searched.
81Characters that appear after a
82.Ql \e0
83character are not searched.
84Since the
85.Fn strnstr
86function is a
87.Fx
88specific API, it should only be used when portablility is not a concern.
89.Sh RETURN VALUES
90If
91.Fa little
92is an empty string,
93.Fa big
94is returned;
95if
96.Fa little
97occurs nowhere in
98.Fa big ,
99NULL is returned;
100otherwise a pointer to the first character of the first occurrence of
101.Fa little
102is returned.
103.Sh EXAMPLES
104The following sets the pointer
105.Va ptr
106to the
107.Dq Li Bar Baz
108portion of
109.Va largestring :
110.Bd -literal -offset indent
111const char *largestring = "Foo Bar Baz";
112const char *smallstring = "Bar";
113char *ptr;
114
115ptr = strstr(largestring, smallstring);
116.Ed
117.Pp
118The following sets the pointer
119.Va ptr
120to NULL, because only the first 4 characters of
121.Va largestring
122are searched:
123.Bd -literal -offset indent
124const char *largestring = "Foo Bar Baz";
125const char *smallstring = "Bar";
126char *ptr;
127
128ptr = strnstr(largestring, smallstring, 4);
129.Ed
130.Sh SEE ALSO
131.Xr memchr 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