SDL_strtok_r(3)

💖 SDL_strtok_r(3) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the SDL3 FUNCTIONS corner of the manual, where today's main character is SDL_strtok_r. she slices strings. she's literally the strtok_r() you already know and love, except she does exactly the same thing without needing access to a C runtime. no C runtime? no problem. she's that girl. 🎀

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <SDL3/SDL_stdinc.h>

char * SDL_strtok_r(char *str, const char *delim, char **saveptr);

like. look at her. iconic signature, no notes. 💅

---

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so the whole vibe here is: break a string up into a series of tokens. that's the job. that's the assignment. she ate.

to start tokenizing a brand-new string, str should be the non-NULL address of the string you wanna start tokenizing. then, for all your future calls where you want the next token from that same string, you pass a NULL instead. that's it. that's the pattern. iykyk. 🦋

⚠️ okay this part is important and i need you to actually read it: this function will overwrite pieces of str with null chars to split it into tokens. so she cannot be used with const/read-only strings! not a suggestion, not a preference, she will genuinely wreck them. 😭

and saveptr? she just needs to point to a char * that can be overwritten. SDL uses that lil guy to save tokenizing state between calls. it gets initialized if str is non-NULL, and it gets used to resume tokenizing when str is NULL. she's remembering where you left off so you don't have to. bestie behavior fr fr. 🫶

---

🌈 FUNCTION PARAMETERS 🌈

• str — the string to tokenize, or NULL to continue tokenizing. (yes, NULL means "keep going", that's the whole trick 💫)
• delim — the delimiter string that separates tokens.
• saveptr — pointer to a char *, used for ongoing state. she lives here between calls. give her a home. 🏠

---

⭐ RETURN VALUE ⭐

returns a pointer to the next token, or NULL if no tokens remain. that NULL at the end? that's her little goodbye. 🥺

---

💜 THREAD SAFETY 💜

it is safe to call this function from any thread. periodt. every thread can have her. she's for the girls and the threads. 👑

---

🦋 AVAILABILITY 🦋

this function is available since SDL 3.2.0. so if you're on something older, no she's not there yet, sorry bestie. 🙈

---

one more time for the people in the back: non-NULL str to start, NULL to continue, saveptr carries the state, and NEVER hand her a const string because she WILL write nulls into it. 💖

---

mwah, that's the whole page. this gem came to you from the lovely folks at Simple Directmedia Layer, and this particular copy is chillin' at version SDL 3.4.18. go tokenize something. slay. ✨💅