scan_ulong(3)

💖 scan_ulong(3) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to scan_ulong(3) from the Library Functions Manual — she's a lil libowfat legend and she's here to turn your text into a number, no drama, no detours. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

scan_ulong — parse an unsigned long integer in decimal ASCII representation

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🌸 SYNTAX 🌸

#include <libowfat/scan.h>

size_t scan_ulong(const char *src,unsigned long *dest);

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so scan_ulong does the thing: it parses an unsigned long integer in decimal ASCII representation out of src, and writes the result straight into dest. and then — the part everyone forgets — it returns the number of bytes it read from src. periodt.

now, she is picky and we love that for her. a leading + or - or space (or literally anything outside of 0-9) is not accepted. and no, she does not do the libc conventions where "023" means octal or "0x23" means hexadecimal — those are not supported. nope. not the vibe. 🙈

she also knows when to stop: scan_ulong will abort the scan if the next character is not a digit, or if it is a digit but adding it to the number would lead to an integer overflow. she's not about to let you overflow, bestie, that's not happening on her watch. 💀

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🎀 RETURN VALUE 🎀

scan_ulong returns the number of characters successfully scanned and processed from src. that's it, that's the tea — how far she got, in bytes. ✨

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🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

okay these are so satisfying, watch:

scan_ulong("23",&i) -> i=23, return 2

scan_ulong("+23",&i) -> return 0

scan_ulong("-23",&i) -> return 0

scan_ulong(" 23",&i) -> return 0

scan_ulong("23,42",&i) -> i=23, return 2

scan_ulong("023",&i) -> i=23, return 3

scan_ulong("0x23",&i) -> i=0, return 1

scan_ulong("4294967296",&i") -> i=429496729, return 9 // 32-bit system

see how "023" gives you i=23 with return 3 — she read all three digits, she just doesn't do octal. and "0x23"? she grabs the 0, hits the x, and bails — i=0, return 1. iconic behaviour honestly. 👑

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• scan_xlong(3)
• scan_8long(3)
• fmt_ulong(3)

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was scan_ulong(3), living in section 3 of the Library Functions Manual, and yeah — same name up top, same name down at the bottom, she's consistent like that. 💜 go forth and parse responsibly, mwah 🧚💖