std::strcmp

 

C++

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Strings library

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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 strtolstrtoll	strtoulstrtoull strtofstrtodstrtold
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String examination
strlen strcmp strncmp strcoll strchr strrchr	strspn strcspn strpbrk strstr strtok
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memcmp
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Defined in header <cstring>
int strcmp( const char *lhs, const char *rhs );

Compares two null-terminated byte strings. The comparison is done lexicographically.

Both lhs and rhs should point to valid strings.

Parameters

lhs, rhs

-

pointers to the null-terminated byte strings to compare

Return value

Negative value if lhs is less than rhs.

​0​ if lhs is equal to rhs.

Positive value if lhs is greater than rhs.

Example

Run this code

#include <vector>
#include <cstring>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
 
int main() 
{
    std::vector<const char*> cats {"Heathcliff", "Snagglepuss", "Hobbes", "Garfield"};
    std::sort(cats.begin(), cats.end(), [](const char *strA, const char *strB) {
        return std::strcmp(strA, strB) < 0;
    }); 
 
    for (const char *cat : cats) {
        std::cout << cat << '\n';
    }
}

Output:

Garfield
Heathcliff
Hobbes
Snagglepuss

See also

strncmp	compares a certain amount of characters of two strings (function)
memcmp	compares two buffers (function)
strcoll	compares two strings in accordance to the current locale (function)
C documentation for strcmp