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| <!-- %MENU% Utilities for copying and comparing strings and arrays --> |
| <h2 class="chapter">5 String and Array Utilities</h2> |
| |
| <p>Operations on strings (or arrays of characters) are an important part of |
| many programs. The GNU C library provides an extensive set of string |
| utility functions, including functions for copying, concatenating, |
| comparing, and searching strings. Many of these functions can also |
| operate on arbitrary regions of storage; for example, the <code>memcpy</code> |
| function can be used to copy the contents of any kind of array. |
| |
| <p>It's fairly common for beginning C programmers to “reinvent the wheel” |
| by duplicating this functionality in their own code, but it pays to |
| become familiar with the library functions and to make use of them, |
| since this offers benefits in maintenance, efficiency, and portability. |
| |
| <p>For instance, you could easily compare one string to another in two |
| lines of C code, but if you use the built-in <code>strcmp</code> function, |
| you're less likely to make a mistake. And, since these library |
| functions are typically highly optimized, your program may run faster |
| too. |
| |
| <ul class="menu"> |
| <li><a accesskey="1" href="Representation-of-Strings.html#Representation-of-Strings">Representation of Strings</a>: Introduction to basic concepts. |
| <li><a accesskey="2" href="String_002fArray-Conventions.html#String_002fArray-Conventions">String/Array Conventions</a>: Whether to use a string function or an |
| arbitrary array function. |
| <li><a accesskey="3" href="String-Length.html#String-Length">String Length</a>: Determining the length of a string. |
| <li><a accesskey="4" href="Copying-and-Concatenation.html#Copying-and-Concatenation">Copying and Concatenation</a>: Functions to copy the contents of strings |
| and arrays. |
| <li><a accesskey="5" href="String_002fArray-Comparison.html#String_002fArray-Comparison">String/Array Comparison</a>: Functions for byte-wise and character-wise |
| comparison. |
| <li><a accesskey="6" href="Collation-Functions.html#Collation-Functions">Collation Functions</a>: Functions for collating strings. |
| <li><a accesskey="7" href="Search-Functions.html#Search-Functions">Search Functions</a>: Searching for a specific element or substring. |
| <li><a accesskey="8" href="Finding-Tokens-in-a-String.html#Finding-Tokens-in-a-String">Finding Tokens in a String</a>: Splitting a string into tokens by looking |
| for delimiters. |
| <li><a accesskey="9" href="strfry.html#strfry">strfry</a>: Function for flash-cooking a string. |
| <li><a href="Trivial-Encryption.html#Trivial-Encryption">Trivial Encryption</a>: Obscuring data. |
| <li><a href="Encode-Binary-Data.html#Encode-Binary-Data">Encode Binary Data</a>: Encoding and Decoding of Binary Data. |
| <li><a href="Argz-and-Envz-Vectors.html#Argz-and-Envz-Vectors">Argz and Envz Vectors</a>: Null-separated string vectors. |
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