Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!rbutterworth
From: rbutterworth@watmath.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: String Processing Instruction
Message-ID: <6448@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 28-Mar-87 18:15:43 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.6448
Posted: Sat Mar 28 18:15:43 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Mar-87 03:34:38 EST
References: <15292@amdcad.UUCP> <978@ames.UUCP> <15304@amdcad.UUCP> <15317@amdcad.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 16
Keywords: strlen strcmp strcpy
Xref: utgpu comp.arch:689 comp.lang.c:1363

In article <15317@amdcad.UUCP>, rpw3@amdcad.UUCP (Rob Warnock) writes:
> I find myself doing:
> 	char *p = &buf[0];
> 	int n;
> 	strcpy(p, "piece");		p += strlen(p);
> 	strcpy(p, "another piece");	p += strlen(p);
> 	sprintf(p, "format%d%s", args...); p+= strlen(p);
> 	strcpy(p, "still another piece"); p += strlen(p);
> 	etc...

Wouldn't it have been nice if strcpy(), strcat(), sprintf(), etc.
had been designed to return a pointer to the END of the string,
(or a count of the number of characters in the string)?

They already have this information for free, but instead they return
their first argument, something that the caller already knows.