strncpy()

Copy a string, to a maximum length

Synopsis:

#include <string.h>

char* strncpy( char* dst,
               const char* src,
               size_t n );

Arguments:

dst

A pointer to where you want to copy the string.

src

The string that you want to copy.

n

The maximum number of characters that you want to copy.

Library:

libc

Use the -l c option to qcc to link against this library. This library is usually included automatically.

Description:

The strncpy() function copies no more than n characters from the string pointed to by src into the array pointed to by dst.

---

Copying of overlapping objects isn't guaranteed to work properly. See the memmove() function if you wish to copy objects that overlap.

---

If the string pointed to by src is shorter than n characters, null characters are appended to the copy in the array pointed to by dst, until n characters in all have been written. If the string pointed to by src is longer than n characters, then the result isn't terminated by a null character.

Returns:

The same pointer as dst.

Examples:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

int main( void )
  {
    char buffer[15];

    printf( "%s\n", strncpy( buffer, "abcdefg", 10 ) );
    printf( "%s\n", strncpy( buffer, "1234567",  6 ) );
    printf( "%s\n", strncpy( buffer, "abcdefg",  3 ) );
    printf( "%s\n", strncpy( buffer, "*******",  0 ) );
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
  }

produces the output:

abcdefg
123456g
abc456g
abc456g

Classification:

ANSI, POSIX 1003.1

See also:

memmove(), strcpy(), strdup(), strlcpy(), wcscpy(), wcsncpy(), wmemmove()