NAME

strcmp, strncmp – compare two strings  

SYNOPSIS

#include <string.h>

int strcmp(const char *s1, const char *s2);

int strncmp(const char *s1, const char *s2, size_t n);
 

DESCRIPTION

The strcmp() function compares the two strings s1 and s2. It returns an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero if s1 is found, respectively, to be less than, to match, or be greater than s2.

The strncmp() function is similar, except it compares the only first (at most) n bytes of s1 and s2.  

RETURN VALUE

The strcmp() and strncmp() functions return an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero if s1 (or the first n bytes thereof) is found, respectively, to be less than, to match, or be greater than s2.  

ATTRIBUTES

 

Multithreading (see pthreads(7))

The strcmp() and strncmp() functions are thread-safe.  

CONFORMING TO

SVr4, 4.3BSD, C89, C99.  

COLOPHON

This page is part of release 3.74 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Willie has over 15 years of experience in Linux system administration and DevOps. After managing infrastructure for startups and enterprises alike, he founded Command Linux to share the practical knowledge he wished he had when starting out. He oversees content strategy and contributes guides on server management, automation, and security.