Seppo Mustonen : Programming Survo in C

Functions in library SURVO.LIB

split

Summary

int split(s,word,max)
char *s;         /* null-terminated string */
char *word[];    /* pointers to words of string */
int max;         /* max number of words to be found */

Description

The split function splits string s into tokens (words) word[0],word[1],...,word[max-1] interpreting spaces and commas as delimiters. Since split writes an EOS character in place of every word ending with a space or a comma in s, the original contents of s are destroyed during the split call. After the call, the pointers word[0],word[1],... indicate the starting positions of the words in s.

Please note that the words will be destroyed if the contents of s are altered after the split call.

Return Value

split returns the number of words found which is max at most. Thus if the number of words in s is greater than max, the excessive words will not be found. There is no error return.

See Also

edread

Example

char x[]="PRINT 11,20";
char *word[3];
int i,k;

k=split(x,word,3);
for (i=0; i<k; ++i)
    printf("\nword[%d]=%s",i,word[i]);

word[0]=PRINT
word[1]=11
word[2]=20

Applications

split is the common tool when analyzing edit lines. A typical combination is, for example:

edread(x,j);
k=split(x+1,word,10);  /* x+1=jth edit line without a control character */