NAME

strcmp, strncmp — compare strings

LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <string.h>

int
strcmp(const char *s1, const char *s2);

int
strncmp(const char *s1, const char *s2, size_t len);

DESCRIPTION

The strcmp() and strncmp() functions lexicographically compare the nul-terminated strings s1 and s2.

RETURN VALUES

The strcmp() and strncmp() return an integer greater than, equal to, or less than 0, according to whether the string s1 is greater than, equal to, or less than the string s2. The comparison is done using unsigned characters, so that ‘\200’ is greater than ‘\0’.

The strncmp() compares not more than len characters.

SEE ALSO

bcmp(3), memcmp(3), strcasecmp(3), strcoll(3), strxfrm(3)

STANDARDS

The strcmp() and strncmp() functions conform to ANSI X3.159-1989 (“ANSI C89”).

NOTES

If len is zero strncmp() returns always 0.