Re: String Manipulation Functions - strcpy, strncpy

From:
cbarron3@ix.netcom.com (Carl Barron)
Newsgroups:
comp.std.c++
Date:
Mon, 2 Apr 2007 00:57:44 CST
Message-ID:
<1hvwurl.1lzrfxn1uc2mquN%cbarron3@ix.netcom.com>
<chikito.chikito@gmail.com> wrote:

1. Can someone tell me the difference between these two functions:

void strcpy(char *s1, const char *s2)
{
   while(*s1++ = *s2++)
     ;

}

//function prototype of strcpy follows
char *strcpy(char *s1, const char *s2) // library function

Both functions are doing the same job.
Why the later function has to return a char pointer?

We call both functions in the same manner and we don't sssign the
return pointer to any other pointer. Correct me if I'm wrong.


  C and C++ allow ignoring thee return value of a function, returning
a char * allows chaining of functions together which can be important,
as in this C code [or C++ code using nothing but C]

char * combine(const char *p,const char *q)
{
    unsigned long new_size = strlen(p)+strlen(q)+1;
    char *out = malloc(new_size);
    if(out)
        strcat(strcpy(out,p),q);
    return out;
}

in C++ I use std::string unless there is a reasoon not, definitely not
this code without guarding ageninst leaks, the C++ code I'd use if I was
given two C strings is probably

intine std::string combine(const char *p,const char *q)
{
   std::string out(p);
   return out.append(q);
}

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