xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/stdlib/strtonum.3 (revision 194f011f43c9d4da6dad3d29585a591ae3ed1ea2)
1.\" $NetBSD: strtonum.3,v 1.2 2015/01/19 11:47:41 wiz Exp $
2.\" $OpenBSD: strtonum.3,v 1.17 2013/08/14 06:32:28 jmc Exp $
3.\"
4.\" Copyright (c) 2004 Ted Unangst
5.\"
6.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
7.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
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10.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
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12.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
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14.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
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18.Dd January 18, 2015
19.Dt STRTONUM 3
20.Os
21.Sh NAME
22.Nm strtonum
23.Nd reliably convert string value to an integer
24.Sh SYNOPSIS
25.Vt #define _OPENBSD_SOURCE
26.In stdlib.h
27.Ft long long
28.Fo strtonum
29.Fa "const char *nptr"
30.Fa "long long minval"
31.Fa "long long maxval"
32.Fa "const char **errstr"
33.Fc
34.Sh DESCRIPTION
35The
36.Fn strtonum
37function converts the string in
38.Fa nptr
39to a
40.Li long long
41value.
42.Pp
43The string may begin with an arbitrary amount of whitespace
44(as determined by
45.Xr isspace 3 )
46followed by a single optional
47.Ql +
48or
49.Ql -
50sign.
51.Pp
52The remainder of the string is converted to a
53.Li long long
54value according to base 10.
55.Pp
56The value obtained is then checked against the provided
57.Fa minval
58and
59.Fa maxval
60bounds.
61If
62.Fa errstr
63is non-null,
64.Fn strtonum
65stores an error string in
66.Fa *errstr
67indicating the failure.
68.Sh RETURN VALUES
69The
70.Fn strtonum
71function returns the result of the conversion,
72unless the value would exceed the provided bounds or is invalid.
73On error, 0 is returned,
74.Va errno
75is set, and
76.Fa errstr
77will point to an error message.
78.Fa *errstr
79will be set to
80.Dv NULL
81on success;
82this fact can be used to differentiate
83a successful return of 0 from an error.
84.Sh EXAMPLES
85Using
86.Fn strtonum
87correctly is meant to be simpler than the alternative functions.
88.Bd -literal -offset indent
89int iterations;
90const char *errstr;
91
92iterations = strtonum(optarg, 1, 64, &errstr);
93if (errstr)
94	errx(1, "number of iterations is %s: %s", errstr, optarg);
95.Ed
96.Pp
97The above example will guarantee that the value of iterations is between
981 and 64 (inclusive).
99.Sh ERRORS
100.Bl -tag -width Er
101.It Bq Er EINVAL
102The given string did not consist solely of digit characters; or
103.Ar minval
104was larger than
105.Ar maxval .
106.It Bq Er ERANGE
107The given string was out of range.
108.El
109.Pp
110If an error occurs,
111.Fa errstr
112will be set to one of the following strings:
113.Pp
114.Bl -tag -width "too largeXX" -compact
115.It Qq too large
116The result was larger than the provided maximum value.
117.It Qq too small
118The result was smaller than the provided minimum value.
119.It Qq invalid
120The string did not consist solely of digit characters.
121.El
122.Sh SEE ALSO
123.Xr atof 3 ,
124.Xr atoi 3 ,
125.Xr atol 3 ,
126.Xr atoll 3 ,
127.Xr sscanf 3 ,
128.Xr strtod 3 ,
129.Xr strtoi 3 ,
130.Xr strtol 3 ,
131.Xr strtoll 3 ,
132.Xr strtou 3 ,
133.Xr strtoul 3 ,
134.Xr strtoull 3
135.Sh STANDARDS
136.Fn strtonum
137is an
138.Ox
139extension.
140.Sh HISTORY
141The
142.Fn strtonum
143function first appeared in
144.Ox 3.6 .
145.Fn strtonum
146was redesigned in
147.Nx 8
148as
149.Fn strtoi 3
150and
151.Fn strtou 3 .
152For compatibility reasons it's available since
153.Nx 8
154in the
155.Vt _OPENBSD_SOURCE
156namespace.
157.Sh CAVEATS
158The
159.Fn strtonum
160function was designed to facilitate safe,
161robust programming and overcome the shortcomings of the
162.Xr atoi 3
163and
164.Xr strtol 3
165family of interfaces, however there are problems with the
166.Fn strtonum
167API:
168.Bl -dash
169.It
170will return 0 on failure; 0 might not be in range, so that necessitates
171an error check even if you want to avoid it
172.It
173does not differentiate 'illegal' returns, so we can't tell the
174difference between partial and no conversions
175.It
176returns english strings
177.It
178can't set the base, or find where the conversion ended
179.It
180hardcodes long long integer type
181.El
182To overcome the shortcomings of
183.Fn strtonum
184.Nx
185provides
186.Fn strtou 3
187and
188.Fn strtoi 3 .
189