ao_string_tokenize (3) - Linux Manuals

ao_string_tokenize: tokenize an input string

NAME

ao_string_tokenize - tokenize an input string

SYNOPSIS

#include <your-opts.h>
cc [...] -o outfile infile.c -lopts [...]

token_list_t* ao_string_tokenize(char const* string);

DESCRIPTION

This function will convert one input string into a list of strings. The list of strings is derived by separating the input based on white space separation. However, if the input contains either single or double quote characters, then the text after that character up to a matching quote will become the string in the list.

The returned pointer should be deallocated with free(3C) when are done using the data. The data are placed in a single block of allocated memory. Do not deallocate individual token/strings.

The structure pointed to will contain at least these two fields:

tkn_ct The number of tokens found in the input string.

tok_list An array of tkn_ct + 1 pointers to substring tokens, with the last pointer set to NULL.

There are two types of quoted strings: single quoted (') and double quoted ("). Singly quoted strings are fairly raw in that escape characters (\) are simply another character, except when preceding the following characters:

    \  double backslashes reduce to one
    '   incorporates the single quote into the string
    fP  suppresses both the backslash and newline character

Double quote strings are formed according to the rules of string constants in ANSI-C programs.

string

string to be tokenized

RETURN VALUE

pointer to a structure that lists each token

ERRORS

NULL is returned and errno will be set to indicate the problem:

EINVAL - There was an unterminated quoted string.

ENOENT - The input string was empty.

ENOMEM - There is not enough memory. @end itemize

EXAMPLES

    #include <stdlib.h>
    int ix;
    token_list_t* ptl = ao_string_tokenize(some_string)
    for (ix = 0; ix < ptl->tkn_ct; ix++)
    do_something_with_tkn(ptl->tkn_list[ix]);
    free(ptl);

Note that everything is freed with the one call to free(3C).