STRSEP(3)

NAME
strsep - separate strings

SYNOPSIS
#include <string.h>

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

DESCRIPTION
The strsep() function locates, in the string referenced by *stringp , the first occurrence of any character in the string delim (or the terminating `\0' character) and replaces it with a `\0'. The location 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. one caused by two adjacent delimiter characters, can be detected by comparing the location referenced by the pointer returned in *stringp 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')
		++ap;

HISTORY
The strsep() function is intended as a replacement for the strtok() function. While the strtok() function should be preferred for portability reasons (it conforms to ANSI C X3.159-1989 (``ANSI C'')) 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.