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From: rgenter@BBN-LABS-B.arpa (Rick Genter)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: Header file strings.h
Message-ID: <1439@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 17-Jun-86 17:44:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.1439
Posted: Tue Jun 17 17:44:23 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Jun-86 09:19:02 EDT
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In article <8606171617.aa10712@VGR.BRL.ARPA>,
"1LT Dennis G. Rears" (FSAC) <drears@ardec.ARPA> writes:

> Paul Schauble writes:
> 
> >I am trying to port a program from Unix to MS-DOS.  It makes use of a
> >header file <strings.h>.  This is not supplied with Microsoft C.  Could
> >someone please enlighten me as to what this contains?
> 
>    <strings.h>  contains the data types for the string
> operations - strcat, strncat, strtok, strcpy, etc.  I have used the

More precisely, it contains the external declarations of these functions.
One could misinterpret the above statement to mean that <strings.h> contains
the data types *manipulated* by the string functions (which it does not).

> strings functions many times without using this header file.  If
> you are checking the return codes of the functions explicitly define
> the functions.  Example:
> 
> char *strcat(), *strcmp();

In every implementation of strcmp() with which I am familiar, it returns (int),
not (char *).  Its return value is suitable for the old Fortran 3-way IF (i.e.,
returns < 0 if string-1 comes before string-2 in dictionary order, = 0 if they
are the same, and > 0 if string-1 comes after string-2).

> int strlen;

This should read:

	int	strlen ();

> 
>    I believe Microsoft C libraries contains the string functions. In
> that case just explicitly define the functions. If they don't  you might
> have to write the string functions yourself.
> 
> Dennis
> 
--------
Rick Genter 				BBN Laboratories Inc.
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