strsep

Synopsis

#include <string.h>

char *strsep(char **stringp, const char *delim);

Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

strsep():
   Since glibc 2.19:
       _DEFAULT_SOURCE
   Glibc 2.19 and earlier:
       _BSD_SOURCE

Description

If *stringp is NULL, the strsep() function returns NULL and does nothing else. Otherwise, this function finds the first token in the string *stringp, that is delimited by one of the bytes in the string delim. This token is terminated by overwriting the delimiter with a null byte ('\0'), and *stringp is updated to point past the token. In case no delimiter was found, the token is taken to be the entire string *stringp, and *stringp is made NULL.

Return Value

The strsep() function returns a pointer to the token, that is, it returns the original value of *stringp.

Attributes

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

Conforming to

4.4BSD.

Notes

The strsep() function was introduced as a replacement for strtok(3), since the latter cannot handle empty fields. However, strtok(3) conforms to C89/C99 and hence is more portable.

Bugs

Be cautious when using this function. If you do use it, note that:

• This function modifies its first argument.
• This function cannot be used on constant strings.
• The identity of the delimiting character is lost.

See Also

index(3), memchr(3), rindex(3), strchr(3), string(3), strpbrk(3), strspn(3), strstr(3), strtok(3)

Colophon

This page is part of release 5.04 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Referenced By

index(3), memchr(3), strchr(3), string(3), strnstr.3bsd(3), strpbrk(3), strspn(3), strstr(3), strtok(3).