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-rw-r--r--manual/string.texi109
1 files changed, 87 insertions, 22 deletions
diff --git a/manual/string.texi b/manual/string.texi
index c638912..8b7e9da 100644
--- a/manual/string.texi
+++ b/manual/string.texi
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ 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}
-function can be used to copy the contents of any kind of array.
+function can be used to copy the contents of any kind of array.
It's fairly common for beginning C programmers to ``reinvent the wheel''
by duplicating this functionality in their own code, but it pays to
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ get the allocation size of the character array that holds a string using
the @code{sizeof} operator:
@smallexample
-char string[32] = "hello, world";
+char string[32] = "hello, world";
sizeof (string)
@result{} 32
strlen (string)
@@ -411,7 +411,7 @@ return a nonzero value if the strings are @emph{not} equivalent rather
than if they are. The sign of the value indicates the relative ordering
of the first characters in the strings that are not equivalent: a
negative value indicates that the first string is ``less'' than the
-second, while a positive value indicates that the first string is
+second, while a positive value indicates that the first string is
``greater''.
The most common use of these functions is to check only for equality.
@@ -623,10 +623,10 @@ overlap; see @ref{Copying and Concatenation}.
The return value is the length of the entire transformed string. This
value is not affected by the value of @var{size}, but if it is greater
-than @var{size}, it means that the transformed string did not entirely
-fit in the array @var{to}. In this case, only as much of the string as
-actually fits was stored. To get the whole transformed string, call
-@code{strxfrm} again with a bigger output array.
+or equal than @var{size}, it means that the transformed string did not
+entirely fit in the array @var{to}. In this case, only as much of the
+string as actually fits was stored. To get the whole transformed
+string, call @code{strxfrm} again with a bigger output array.
The transformed string may be longer than the original string, and it
may also be shorter.
@@ -671,23 +671,32 @@ sort_strings_fast (char **array, int nstrings)
for (i = 0; i < nstrings; i++)
@{
size_t length = strlen (array[i]) * 2;
+ char *transformed;
+ size_t transformed_lenght;
temp_array[i].input = array[i];
- /* @r{Transform @code{array[i]}.}
- @r{First try a buffer probably big enough.} */
- while (1)
+ /* @r{First try a buffer perhaps big enough.} */
+ transformed = (char *) xmalloc (length);
+
+ /* @r{Transform @code{array[i]}.} */
+ transformed_length = strxfrm (transformed, array[i], length);
+
+ /* @r{If the buffer was not large enough, resize it}
+ @r{and try again.} */
+ if (transformed_length >= length)
@{
- char *transformed = (char *) xmalloc (length);
- if (strxfrm (transformed, array[i], length) < length)
- @{
- temp_array[i].transformed = transformed;
- break;
- @}
- /* @r{Try again with a bigger buffer.} */
- free (transformed);
- length *= 2;
+ /* @r{Allocate the needed space. +1 for terminating}
+ @r{@code{NUL} character.} */
+ transformed = (char *) xrealloc (transformed,
+ transformed_length + 1);
+
+ /* @r{The return value is not interesting because we know}
+ @r{how long the transformed string is.} */
+ (void) strxfrm (transformed, array[i], transformed_length + 1);
@}
+
+ temp_array[i].transformed = transformed;
@}
/* @r{Sort @code{temp_array} by comparing transformed strings.} */
@@ -741,7 +750,7 @@ strchr ("hello, world", 'l')
@result{} "llo, world"
strchr ("hello, world", '?')
@result{} NULL
-@end smallexample
+@end smallexample
The terminating null character is considered to be part of the string,
so you can use this function get a pointer to the end of a string by
@@ -857,8 +866,6 @@ strpbrk ("hello, world", " \t\n,.;!?")
@node Finding Tokens in a String, , Search Functions, String and Array Utilities
@section Finding Tokens in a String
-@c !!! Document strsep, which is a better thing to use than strtok.
-
@cindex tokenizing strings
@cindex breaking a string into tokens
@cindex parsing tokens from a string
@@ -945,3 +952,61 @@ token = strtok (NULL, delimiters); /* token => "and" */
token = strtok (NULL, delimiters); /* token => "punctuation" */
token = strtok (NULL, delimiters); /* token => NULL */
@end smallexample
+
+The GNU C library contains two more functions for tokenizing a string
+which overcome the limitation of non-reentrancy.
+
+@comment string.h
+@comment POSIX
+@deftypefun {char *} strtok_r (char *@var{newstring}, const char *@var{delimiters}, char **@var{save_ptr})
+Just like @code{strtok} this function splits the string into several
+tokens which can be accessed be successive calls to @code{strtok_r}.
+The difference is that the information about the next token is not set
+up in some internal state information. Instead the caller has to
+provide another argument @var{save_ptr} which is a pointer to a string
+pointer. Calling @code{strtok_r} with a null pointer for
+@var{newstring} and leaving @var{save_ptr} between the calls unchanged
+does the job without limiting reentrancy.
+
+This function was proposed for POSIX.1b and can be found on many systems
+which support multi-threading.
+@end deftypefun
+
+@comment string.h
+@comment BSD
+@deftypefun {char *} strsep (char **@var{string_ptr}, const char *@var{delimiter})
+A second reentrant approach is to avoid the additional first argument.
+The initialization of the moving pointer has to be done by the user.
+Successive calls of @code{strsep} move the pointer along the tokens
+separated by @var{delimiter}, returning the address of the next token
+and updating @var{string_ptr} to point to the beginning of the next
+token.
+
+This function was introduced in 4.3BSD and therefore is widely available.
+@end deftypefun
+
+Here is how the above example looks like when @code{strsep} is used.
+
+@comment Yes, this example has been tested.
+@smallexample
+#include <string.h>
+#include <stddef.h>
+
+@dots{}
+
+char string[] = "words separated by spaces -- and, punctuation!";
+const char delimiters[] = " .,;:!-";
+char *running;
+char *token;
+
+@dots{}
+
+running = string;
+token = strsep (&running, delimiters); /* token => "words" */
+token = strsep (&running, delimiters); /* token => "separated" */
+token = strsep (&running, delimiters); /* token => "by" */
+token = strsep (&running, delimiters); /* token => "spaces" */
+token = strsep (&running, delimiters); /* token => "and" */
+token = strsep (&running, delimiters); /* token => "punctuation" */
+token = strsep (&running, delimiters); /* token => NULL */
+@end smallexample