'\" et
.TH STRTOK "3P" 2017 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
.\"
.SH PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.
The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult
the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
.\"
.SH NAME
strtok,
strtok_r
\(em split string into tokens
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
#include <string.h>
.P
char *strtok(char *restrict \fIs\fP, const char *restrict \fIsep\fP);
char *strtok_r(char *restrict \fIs\fP, const char *restrict \fIsep\fP,
    char **restrict \fIstate\fP);
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
For
\fIstrtok\fR():
The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the
ISO\ C standard. Any conflict between the requirements described here and the
ISO\ C standard is unintentional. This volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017 defers to the ISO\ C standard.
.P
A sequence of calls to
\fIstrtok\fR()
breaks the string pointed to by
.IR s
into a sequence of tokens, each of which is delimited by a byte from
the string pointed to by
.IR sep .
The first call in the sequence has
.IR s
as its first argument, and is followed by calls with a null pointer as
their first argument. The separator string pointed to by
.IR sep
may be different from call to call.
.P
The first call in the sequence searches the string pointed to by
.IR s
for the first byte that is
.IR not
contained in the current separator string pointed to by
.IR sep .
If no such byte is found, then there are no tokens in the string
pointed to by
.IR s
and
\fIstrtok\fR()
shall return a null pointer. If such a byte is found, it is the
start of the first token.
.P
The
\fIstrtok\fR()
function then searches from there for a byte that
.IR is
contained in the current separator string. If no such byte is found,
the current token extends to the end of the string pointed to by
.IR s ,
and subsequent searches for a token shall return a null pointer. If
such a byte is found, it is overwritten by a NUL character, which
terminates the current token. The
\fIstrtok\fR()
function saves a pointer to the following byte, from which the next
search for a token shall start.
.P
Each subsequent call, with a null pointer as the value of the first
argument, starts searching from the saved pointer and behaves as
described above.
.P
The implementation shall behave as if no function defined in this volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017
calls
\fIstrtok\fR().
.P
The
\fIstrtok\fR()
function need not be thread-safe.
.P
The
\fIstrtok_r\fR()
function shall be equivalent to
\fIstrtok\fR(),
except that
\fIstrtok_r\fR()
shall be thread-safe and the argument
.IR state
points to a user-provided pointer that allows
\fIstrtok_r\fR()
to maintain state between calls which scan the same string. The
application shall ensure that the pointer pointed to by
.IR state
is unique for each string (\c
.IR s )
being processed concurrently by
\fIstrtok_r\fR()
calls. The application need not initialize the pointer pointed to by
.IR state
to any particular value. The implementation shall not update the
pointer pointed to by
.IR state
to point (directly or indirectly) to resources, other than within
the string
.IR s ,
that need to be freed or released by the caller.
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
Upon successful completion,
\fIstrtok\fR()
shall return a pointer to the first byte of a token. Otherwise,
if there is no token,
\fIstrtok\fR()
shall return a null pointer.
.P
The
\fIstrtok_r\fR()
function shall return a pointer to the token found, or a null pointer
when no token is found.
.SH ERRORS
No errors are defined.
.LP
.IR "The following sections are informative."
.SH EXAMPLES
.SS "Searching for Word Separators"
.P
The following example searches for tokens separated by
<space>
characters.
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

#include <string.h>
\&...
char *token;
char line[] = "LINE TO BE SEPARATED";
char *search = " ";
.P
/* Token will point to "LINE". */
token = strtok(line, search);
.P
/* Token will point to "TO". */
token = strtok(NULL, search);
.fi
.P
.RE
.SS "Find First two Fields in a Buffer"
.P
The following example uses
\fIstrtok\fR()
to find two character strings (a key and data associated with that key)
separated by any combination of
<space>,
<tab>,
or
<newline>
characters at the start of the array of characters pointed to by
.IR buffer .
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

#include <string.h>
\&...
char    *buffer;
\&...
struct element {
    char *key;
    char *data;
} e;
\&...
// Load the buffer...
\&...
// Get the key and its data...
e.key = strtok(buffer, " \et\en");
e.data = strtok(NULL, " \et\en");
// Process the rest of the contents of the buffer...
\&...
.fi
.P
.RE
.SH "APPLICATION USAGE"
Note that if
.IR sep
is the empty string,
\fIstrtok\fR()
and
\fIstrtok_r\fR()
return a pointer to the remainder of the string being tokenized.
.P
The
\fIstrtok_r\fR()
function is thread-safe and stores its state in a user-supplied buffer
instead of possibly using a static data area that may be overwritten
by an unrelated call from another thread.
.SH RATIONALE
The
\fIstrtok\fR()
function searches for a separator string within a larger string. It
returns a pointer to the last substring between separator strings.
This function uses static storage to keep track of the current string
position between calls. The new function,
\fIstrtok_r\fR(),
takes an additional argument,
.IR state ,
to keep track of the current position in the string.
.SH "FUTURE DIRECTIONS"
None.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
.IR "\fB<string.h>\fP"
.\"
.SH COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition,
Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
.PP
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear
in this page are most likely
to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to
man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .