std::strncmp

C++

Language

Headers

Freestanding and hosted implementations

Named requirements

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Diagnostics library

Utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Algorithms library

Iterators library

Numerics library

Input/output library

Localizations library

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Atomic operations library (C++11)

Thread support library (C++11)

Filesystem library (C++17)

Technical Specifications

Strings library

Null-terminated strings

Byte strings

Multibyte strings

Wide strings

Classes

basic_string

basic_string_view (C++17)

char_traits

Null-terminated byte strings

Functions
Character manipulation
isalnum isalpha islower isupper isdigit isxdigit isblank (C++11)	iscntrl isgraph isspace isprint ispunct tolower toupper
Conversions to numeric formats
atof atoiatolatoll (C++11) strtolstrtoll (C++11)	strtoulstrtoull (C++11) strtofstrtodstrtold (C++11)(C++11) strtoimaxstrtouimax (C++11)(C++11)
String manipulation
strcpy
strncpy
strcat
strncat
strxfrm
String examination
strlen strcmp strncmp strcoll strchr strrchr	strspn strcspn strpbrk strstr strtok
Memory manipulation
memchr
memcmp
memset
memcpy
memmove
Miscellaneous
strerror

Defined in header <cstring>
int strncmp( const char* lhs, const char* rhs, size_t count );

Compares at most count characters of two null-terminated byte strings. The comparison is done lexicographically.

The sign of the result is the sign of the difference between the values of the first pair of characters (both interpreted as unsigned char) that differ in the strings being compared.

The behavior is undefined if lhs or rhs are not pointers to null-terminated strings.

Characters following the null character are not compared.

Parameters

lhs, rhs	-	pointers to the null-terminated byte strings to compare
count	-	maximum number of characters to compare

Return value

Negative value if lhs appears before rhs in lexicographical order.

Zero if lhs and rhs compare equal.

Positive value if lhs appears after rhs in lexicographical order.

Example

Run this code

#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>

void demo(const char* lhs, const char* rhs, int sz)
{
    int rc = std::strncmp(lhs, rhs, sz);
    if(rc == 0)
        std::cout << "First " << sz << " chars of ["
                  << lhs << "] equal [" << rhs << "]\n";
    else if(rc < 0)
        std::cout << "First " << sz << " chars of ["
                  << lhs << "] precede [" << rhs << "]\n";
    else if(rc > 0)
        std::cout << "First " << sz << " chars of ["
                  << lhs << "] follow [" << rhs << "]\n";
}
int main()
{
    demo("Hello, world!", "Hello, everybody!", 13);
    demo("Hello, everybody!", "Hello, world!", 13);
    demo("Hello, everybody!", "Hello, world!", 7);
    demo("Hello, everybody!" + 12, "Hello, somebody!" + 11, 5);
}

Output:

First 13 chars of [Hello, world!] follow [Hello, everybody!]
First 13 chars of [Hello, everybody!] precede [Hello, world!]
First 7 chars of [Hello, everybody!] equal [Hello, world!]
First 5 chars of [body!] equal [body!]

See also

strcmp	compares two strings (function)
wcsncmp	compares a certain amount of characters from two wide strings (function)
memcmp	compares two buffers (function)
strcoll	compares two strings in accordance to the current locale (function)