strsep(3)

strsep3

String separate

Usage

#include <string.h>

char *strsep(char **restrict stringp, const char *restrict delim);

Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

strsep():

    Since glibc 2.19:
        _DEFAULT_SOURCE
    glibc 2.19 and earlier:
        _BSD_SOURCE

Library

Standard C library (libc, -lc)

Overview

If *stringp is NULL, the strsep() function returns NULL and does nothing else. Otherwise, this function finds the first token in the string *stringp that is delimited by one of the bytes in the string delim. This token is terminated by overwriting the delimiter with a null byte ('\0'), and *stringp is updated to point past the token. In case no delimiter was found, the token is taken to be the entire string *stringp, and *stringp is made NULL.

Return value

The strsep() function returns a pointer to the token, that is, it returns the original value of *stringp.

Attributes

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

InterfaceAttributeValue
strsep()Thread safetyMT-Safe

Caveats

Be cautious when using this function. If you do use it, note that:

•

The identity of the delimiting character is lost.

Examples

The program below is a port of the one found in strtok(3), which, however, doesn't discard multiple delimiters or empty tokens:

$ ./a.out 'a/bbb///cc;xxx:yyy:' ':;' '/'
1: a/bbb///cc
         --> a
         --> bbb
         -->
         -->
         --> cc
2: xxx
         --> xxx
3: yyy
         --> yyy
4:
         -->

Program source

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    char *token, *subtoken;
    if (argc != 4) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s string delim subdelim\n", argv[0]);
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
    for (unsigned int j = 1; (token = strsep(&argv[1], argv[2])); j++) {
        printf("%u: %s\n", j, token);
        while ((subtoken = strsep(&token, argv[3])))
            printf("\t --> %s\n", subtoken);
    }
    exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

Releases

19 releases since Debian 1.1 (Buzz); the text changed 14 times.

  1. 1.1–1.2
  2. 1.3–2.2
  3. 3.0
  4. 3.1
  5. 4.0
  6. 5.0
  7. 6.0
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. 11
  13. 12
  14. 13
  15. Arch

Standards

BSD.

History

4.4BSD.

The strsep() function was introduced as a replacement for strtok(3), since the latter cannot handle empty fields.

From man-pages 6.19-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.