strsep() - separate strings
#include <string.h>
char * strsep (char **stringp, char *delim)
The strsep(3) 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(3) returns NULL.
The following uses strsep(3) 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;
The strsep(3) function is intended as a replacement for the strtok(3) function. While the strtok(3) function should be preferred for portability reasons (it conforms to ISO> 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(3) function first appeared in 4.4BSD.
strtok(3)