How to write a function to search for a string within an array

Question

This is what I have so far:

for(i = 0; i <= 9; i++){
    printf("%d", i);
    found = strpbrk(nameholder[i], searchterm);
    if(strpbrk(nameholder[i], searchterm) == searchterm){
        printf("found\n");
        foundwhere = i + 1;
        break;
    }
}// end for

When I run the program, the strpbrk function finds the string, but for some reason it never triggers the if statement. What am I missing?

You're using the wrong operator. == is for numerical equality. — user529758
– user529758, Commented Sep 18, 2012 at 17:53
I got it working it was a combination of different things, using strcmp() instead of strpbrk() was the first step in figuring it out though. When i used strcmp() it would return 1 as the result, so then i realize an extra character was being added to the original string input. So thanks for the help! — Stablecannon
– Stablecannon, Commented Sep 18, 2012 at 18:17

timrau · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-18 17:06:04Z

2

According to http://en.cppreference.com/w/c/string/byte/strpbrk , strpbrk() is for

const char* strpbrk( const char* dest, const char* str );
Finds the first character in byte string pointed to by dest, that is also in byte string pointed to by str.

Thus, if you really want to find the whole searchterm instead of any character of searchterm in nameholder[i], you should use strcmp or strstr.

Also note that the operator == can not be used to compare the equality of two char* strings since it simply compare if the addresses are equal or not disregarding the string content. Use strcmp() instead.

answered Sep 18, 2012 at 17:06

timrau

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1 Comment

Stablecannon Over a year ago

I got it working it was a combination of different things, using strcmp() instead of strpbrk() was the first step in figuring it out though. When i used strcmp() it would return 1 as the result, so then i realize an extra character was being added to the original string input. So thanks for the help!

tu_ru · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-18 17:12:19Z

-1

If I correctly understood (your description is vague) what you are trying to do, then you seem to be using a wrong function.

Quoting cpp docs on strpbrk:

Returns a pointer to the first occurrence in str1 of any of the characters that are part of str2, or a null pointer if there are no matches.

That's not what you want it to do, right? You should be looking at strcpm function. http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/clibrary/cstring/strcmp/

Your code should look like:

for(i = 0; i <= 9; i++){ 
    if(strcmp(nameholder[i], searchterm) == 0){
        printf("found\n");
        foundwhere = i + 1;
        break;
    }
}// end for

edited Sep 18, 2012 at 17:12

answered Sep 18, 2012 at 17:07

tu_ru

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