strcpy

strcpy

Copy a Null-Terminated String

Portability: ISO/ANSI C conforming, UNIX compatible

SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
RETURN VALUE
CAUTION
IMPLEMENTATION
EXAMPLE
RELATED FUNCTIONS
SEE ALSO

SYNOPSIS

#include <string.h>

char *strcpy(char *to, const char *from);

DESCRIPTION

strcpy copies characters from the second argument string, from , to the first argument string, to , until a terminating-null character is found. The null also is copied.

RETURN VALUE

The return value is a pointer to the to string.

CAUTION

No check is made (or can be made) to see if there is room in the to string for all the characters of the from string. Characters are copied until a null character is found, or until a protection or addressing exception occurs.

The effect of strcpy is not defined if the to and from fields overlap.

IMPLEMENTATION

Provided that <string.h> is included (by an #include statement) and strcpy is not undefined (by an #undef statement), strcpy is implemented by inline code.

EXAMPLE

#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

#define WORDSIZE 20

main()
{
   char *text = "Some of this "line" is in "quotes".";
   char *quotepos1, *quotepos2;
   char word[WORDSIZE];

   printf("The input text is:\n%s\n", text);
   quotepos1 = strchr(text, '"');
   if (quotepos1 == NULL) {
      puts("There are no quotes in this line.");
      abort();
   }
   quotepos2 = strchr(quotepos1+1, '"');
   if (quotepos2 == NULL) {
      puts("There is only one quotation mark in this line.");
      abort();
   }
   if (quotepos2 - quotepos1 > WORDSIZE)
      puts("The first word in quotes is too large to handle.");
   else {
      strcpy(word, quotepos1+1);          /* Copy the word.           */
      word[quotepos2-quotepos1-1] = '\0'; /* Null-terminate the word. */
      printf("The first word in quotation marks in the text is "%s".",
             word);
   }
}

RELATED FUNCTIONS

memcpy , strcat , strncpy , strsave

SEE ALSO

String Utility Functions

Chapter Contents
Previous
Next
Top of Page