STRNCMP(3P)

📦 version 2017a, in alpine 3.22, alpine 3.23, alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable, opensuse-leap 16.0

✨ STRNCMP(3P) ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the POSIX Programmer's Manual 💖 this is the strncmp page and she is iconic, short, and absolutely does what it says on the tin. sit down, hydrate, let's go 🫶

🌸 PROLOG 🌸

bestie, real talk first: this manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. the Linux implementation of this interface may differ (so like, consult the corresponding Linux manual page for the details of Linux behavior, okay?), or — and this is the wild part — the interface may not be implemented on Linux at all. she might just not exist there. 💀

🎀 NAME 🎀

strncmp — compare part of two strings

like. she compares part of them. not the whole thing. a little taste. a nibble. 🍓

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <string.h>

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

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so here's the tea. the functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the ISO C standard. any conflict between the requirements described here and the ISO C standard is unintentional — no drama intended, fr fr. this volume of POSIX.1‐2017 defers to the ISO C standard. periodt.

the strncmp() function shall compare not more than n bytes (and heads up: bytes that follow a NUL character are not compared — she stops at the NUL, no cap) from the array pointed to by s1 to the array pointed to by s2.

the sign of a non-zero return value is determined by the sign of the difference between the values of the first pair of bytes (both interpreted as type unsigned char, okay, both of them) that differ in the strings being compared. so like, first byte that disagrees wins the argument. 👑

👑 RETURN VALUE 👑

upon successful completion, strncmp() shall return an integer greater than, equal to, or less than 0, if the possibly null-terminated array pointed to by s1 is greater than, equal to, or less than the possibly null-terminated array pointed to by s2 respectively. she's giving three-outcomes-one-function energy. 🌈

🧚 ERRORS 🧚

no errors are defined. not a single one. she's unbothered. 💅

the following sections are informative. (iykyk — that means they're the fun bonus lore, not the binding rules 📖)

⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

None.

🌸 APPLICATION USAGE 🌸

None.

💜 RATIONALE 💜

None.

🦋 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 🦋

None.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

  • strcmp()
  • The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, <string.h>

portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.

in the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. she is the final boss, bestie. the original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. to report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

and that's the whole page, bestie 🎀 this edition came to you courtesy of IEEE/The Open Group, 2017, and yes she really is titled STRNCMP(3P). mwah, go compare some strings, stay hydrated, and remember — only the first n bytes, no more. 💖🦋✨

📦 where this page comes from