STRSEP(3) UNIX Programmer's Manual STRSEP(3) NAME strsep - separate strings SYNOPSIS #include <string.h> char * strsep(stringp, delim) char **stringp; char *delim; DESCRIPTION The strsep() 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 delim- iter characters, can be detected by comparing the location referenced by the pointer returned in *stringp to `\0'. If *stringp is initially NULL, strsep() returns NULL. EXAMPLES 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; HISTORY 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 C X3.159-1989 (``ANSI C'')) it is unable to handle empty fields, i.e. detect fields delimited by two adjacent delim- iter characters, or to be used for more than a single string at a time. The strsep() function first appeared in 4.4BSD. Printed 11/26/99 January 12, 1996 1