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STRSEP(3) Library Functions Manual STRSEP(3)

strsepseparate strings

#include <string.h>

char *
strsep(char **stringp, char *delim);

The () function locates, in the string referenced by *stringp, the first occurrence of any character in the string delim (or the terminating ‘\0’ character) and replaces it with a ‘\0’. The location of the next character after the delimiter character (or NULL, if the end of the string was reached) is stored in *stringp. The original value of *stringp is returned.

An ``empty'' field, i.e. one caused by two adjacent delimiter characters, can be detected by comparing the location referenced by the pointer returned in *stringp to ‘\0’.

If *stringp is initially NULL, () returns NULL.

The following uses strsep() to parse a string, containing tokens delimited by white space, into an argument vector:

char **ap, *argv[10], *inputstring;

for (ap = argv; (*ap = strsep(&inputstring, " \t")) != NULL;)
	if (**ap != '\0')
		++ap;

The strsep() function is intended as a replacement for the strtok() function. While the strtok() function should be preferred for portability reasons (it conforms to ANSI X3.159-1989 (“ANSI C89”)) it is unable to handle empty fields, i.e. detect fields delimited by two adjacent delimiter characters, or to be used for more than a single string at a time. The strsep() function first appeared in 4.4BSD.

4.4BSD-Lite2 June 9, 1993 STRSEP(3)