June 4, 1993 STRCMP 3

### NAME

strcmp, strncmp - compare strings

### LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

### SYNOPSIS

```int` strcmp(```const char *s1``, const char *s2`)
```int` strncmp(```const char *s1``, const char *s2``, size_t len`)

### DESCRIPTION

The strcmp(``) and strncmp(``) functions lexicographically compare the nul-terminated strings ```s1` and ```s2`.

### RETURN VALUES

The strcmp(``) and strncmp(``) return an integer greater than, equal to, or less than 0, according to whether the string ```s1` is greater than, equal to, or less than the string ```s2`. The comparison is done using unsigned characters, so that `\200' is greater than `\0'.

The strncmp(``) compares not more than ```len` characters.

### SEE ALSO

bcmp(3), memcmp(3), strcasecmp(3), strcoll(3), strxfrm(3)

### STANDARDS

The strcmp(``) and strncmp(``) functions conform to ANSI X3.159-1989 (``ANSI C89'') .

### NOTES

If ```len` is zero strncmp(``) returns always 0.