STRLTRIM(3pub)

📦 version 0.40, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 STRLTRIM(3pub) 💖

okay bestie, so this is a page from the C Programmer's Manual (the publib one, you know the vibes), and it's all about strltrim — the little function that yeets whitespace off the front of your string. she's simple, she's reliable, she's lowkey iconic. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

strltrim — remove leading whitespace from a string

like... that's her whole job. that's the assignment. and she ate. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <publib.h>
char *strltrim(char *s);

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the tea: strltrim removes all leading whitespace characters from the beginning of a string. how does she do it? not me asking the real questions — she does it by moving everything starting from the first non-whitespace character all the way to the beginning of the string. like, packing up and relocating to the front. main character energy fr fr. 👑

and what counts as "whitespace"? literally everything for which isspace(3) returns true. that's the vibe check. if isspace(3) says yes, it's whitespace, and it's getting trimmed. periodt.

💜 RETURN VALUE 💜

strltrim returns its argument. yes, the same pointer you handed her. she gives it right back. no cap. 🎀

⭐ EXAMPLE ⭐

okay so say you wanna remove all the indentation from all the lines in a program — here's how you'd do it:

#include <publib.h>

int main(void) {
     char line[512];

     while (fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdio) != NULL) {
          strltrim(line);
          printf("%s", line);
     }
     return 0;
}

she reads a line, trims the front, prints it. over and over. it's giving dedicated. 🔥

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

(the whole trim squad 🫶 — strrtrim does the back end, strtrim does both, and isspace is the one deciding what even counts.)

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Lars Wirzenius (lars.wirzenius@helsinki.fi) — thank you king, we appreciate you 💖

and that's the whole page bestie! no missing details, no skipped sections, every single thing preserved. iykyk 😭✨

this iconic lil manual page is brought to you by Publib, dated as part of the C Programmer's Manual, filed under STRLTRIM(3pub). mwah 💋 stay trimmed, stay slaying 🦋🌸💅

📦 where this page comes from