strncmp

 

C

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headers

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Dynamic memory management

Error handling

Program utilities

Variadic function support

Date and time utilities

Strings library

Algorithms

Numerics

Input/output support

Localization support

Thread support (C11)

Atomic operations (C11)

Technical Specifications

 

Strings library

Byte strings

Multibyte strings

Wide strings

 

Null-terminated byte strings

Functions
Character manipulation
isalnum isalpha islower isupper isdigit isxdigit isblank (C99)	iscntrl isgraph isspace isprint ispunct tolower toupper
Conversions to numeric formats
atof atoiatolatoll strtolstrtoll	strtoulstrtoull strtofstrtodstrtold strtoimaxstrtoumax (C99)(C99)
String manipulation
strcpystrcpy_s (C11)
strncpystrncpy_s (C11)
strcatstrcat_s (C11)
strncatstrncat_s (C11)
strxfrm
String examination
strlenstrnlen_s (C11) strcmp strncmp strcoll strchr strrchr	strspn strcspn strpbrk strstr strtokstrtok_s (C11)
Memory manipulation
memchr
memcmp
memsetmemset_s (C11)
memcpymemcpy_s (C11)
memmovememmove_s (C11)
Miscellaneous
strerrorstrerror_sstrerrorlen_s (C11)(C11)

 

Defined in header <string.h>
int strncmp( const char *lhs, const char *rhs, size_t count );

Compares at most count characters of two null-terminated byte strings. The comparison is done lexicographically.

The sign of the result is the sign of the difference between the values of the first pair of characters (both interpreted as unsigned char) that differ in the strings being compared.

The behavior is undefined if lhs or rhs are not pointers to null-terminated strings.

Parameters

lhs, rhs	-	pointers to the null-terminated byte strings to compare
count	-	maximum number of characters to compare

Return value

Negative value if lhs appears before rhs in lexicographical order.

Zero if lhs and rhs compare equal.

Positive value if lhs appears after rhs in lexicographical order.

Example

Run this code

#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
 
void demo(const char* lhs, const char* rhs, int sz)
{
    int rc = strncmp(lhs, rhs, sz);
    if(rc == 0)
        printf("First %d chars of [%s] equal [%s]\n", sz, lhs, rhs);
    else if(rc < 0)
        printf("First %d chars of [%s] precede [%s]\n", sz, lhs, rhs);
    else if(rc > 0)
        printf("First %d chars of [%s] follow [%s]\n", sz, lhs, rhs);
 
}
int main(void)
{
    const char* string = "Hello World!";
    demo(string, "Hello!", 5);
    demo(string, "Hello", 10);
    demo(string, "Hello there", 10);
    demo("Hello, everybody!" + 12, "Hello, somebody!" + 11, 5);
}

Output:

First 5 chars of [Hello World!] equal [Hello!]
First 10 chars of [Hello World!] follow [Hello]
First 10 chars of [Hello World!] precede [Hello there]
First 5 chars of [body!] equal [body!]

References

• C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

• 7.24.4.4 The strncmp function (p: 366)

• C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

• 7.21.4.4 The strncmp function (p: 329)

• C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):

• 4.11.4.4 The strncmp function

See also

strcmp	compares two strings (function)
wcsncmp (C95)	compares a certain amount of characters from two wide strings (function)
memcmp	compares two buffers (function)
strcoll	compares two strings in accordance to the current locale (function)
C++ documentation for strncmp