STRSEP(3)

NAME
strsep - separate strings

SYNOPSIS
#include <string.h>

char * strsep (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) 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.