What is strncmp() Function in C language?

The C library function int strncmp(const char *str1, const char *str2, size_t n) compares at most the first n bytes of str1 and str2.

An array of characters is called a string.

Declaration

The syntax for declaring an array is as follows −

char stringname [size];

For example − char string[50]; string of length 50 characters

Initialization

• Using single character constant −

char string[10] = { ‘H’, ‘e’, ‘l’, ‘l’, ‘o’ ,‘\0’}

• Using string constants −

char string[10] = "Hello":;

Accessing − There is a control string "%s" used for accessing the string till it encounters ‘\0’.

The strncmp ( ) Function

This function is used for comparing first ‘n’ characters of 2 strings.

Syntax

The syntax for strncmp() function is as follows −

strncmp ( string1, string2, n)

Example

char a[10] = "the";
char b[10] = "there"
strncmp (a,b,3);

The output would be that the Both strings are equal.

Example

Given below is a C program to compare a specific character between two strings using strncmp library function −

 Live Demo

#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
void main(){
   //Declaring two strings//
   char string1[25],string2[25];
   int value;
   //Reading string 1 and String 2//
   printf("Enter String 1: ");
   gets(string1);
   printf("Enter String 2: ");
   gets(string2);
   //Comparing using library function//
   value = strncmp(string1,string2,4);
   //If conditions//
   if(value==0){
      printf("%s is same as %s",string1,string2);
   }
   else if(value>0){
      printf("%s is greater than %s",string1,string2);
   } else {
      printf("%s is less than %s",string1,string2);
   }
}

Output

When the above program is executed, it produces the following result −

Run1:
Enter String 1: Welcome
Enter String 2: TO my World
Welcome is greater than TO my World
Run 2:
Enter String 1: welcome
Enter String 2: welcome
welcome is same as welcome