xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/string/strstr.3 (revision 89503316a038ddfd04ea8491974e05d1baa5e531)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2001 Mike Barcroft <mike@FreeBSD.org>
2.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993
3.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
4.\"
5.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
6.\" Chris Torek and the American National Standards Committee X3,
7.\" on Information Processing Systems.
8.\"
9.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
10.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
11.\" are met:
12.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
13.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
14.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
15.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
16.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
17.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
18.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
19.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
20.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
21.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
22.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
23.\"    without specific prior written permission.
24.\"
25.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
26.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
27.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
28.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
29.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
30.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
31.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
32.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
33.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
34.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
35.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
36.\"
37.\"     @(#)strstr.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
38.\" $FreeBSD$
39.\"
40.Dd June 4, 1993
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 only the first number of characters, identified by
79.Fa len ,
80are searched.
81Since the
82.Fn strnstr
83function is a
84.Fx
85specific API, it should only be used when portablility is not a concern.
86.Sh RETURN VALUES
87If
88.Fa little
89is an empty string,
90.Fa big
91is returned;
92if
93.Fa little
94occurs nowhere in
95.Fa big ,
96NULL is 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.Dq 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 NULL, because only the first 4 characters of
118.Va largestring
119are searched:
120.Bd -literal -offset indent
121const char *largestring = "Foo Bar Baz";
122const char *smallstring = "Bar";
123char *ptr;
124
125ptr = strnstr(largestring, smallstring, 4);
126.Ed
127.Sh SEE ALSO
128.Xr memchr 3 ,
129.Xr strchr 3 ,
130.Xr strcspn 3 ,
131.Xr strpbrk 3 ,
132.Xr strrchr 3 ,
133.Xr strsep 3 ,
134.Xr strspn 3 ,
135.Xr strtok 3
136.Sh STANDARDS
137The
138.Fn strstr
139function
140conforms to
141.St -isoC .
142