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STRSEP(3)                BSD Library Functions Manual                STRSEP(3)

NAME
     strsep -- separate strings

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <string.h>

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

DESCRIPTION
     The strsep() function locates, in the string referenced by *stringp, the first occurrence of any char-acter character
     acter in the string delim (or the terminating `\0' character) and replaces it with a `\0'.  The loca-tion location
     tion 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., a character in the string delim occurs as the first character of *stringp)
     can be detected by comparing the location referenced by the returned pointer 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')
                           if (++ap >= &argv[10])
                                   break;

SEE ALSO
     memchr(3), strchr(3), strcspn(3), strpbrk(3), strrchr(3), strspn(3), strstr(3), strtok(3)

HISTORY
     The strsep() function is intended as a replacement for the strtok() function.  While the strtok() func-tion function
     tion should be preferred for portability reasons (it conforms to ISO/IEC 9899:1990 (``ISO C90'')) it is
     unable to handle empty fields, i.e., detect fields delimited by two adjacent delimiter characters, or
     to be used for more than a single string at a time.  The strsep() function first appeared in 4.4BSD.

BSD                              June 9, 1993                              BSD