xref: /openbsd-src/lib/libc/stdlib/strtol.3 (revision b2ea75c1b17e1a9a339660e7ed45cd24946b230e)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
2.\" All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
5.\" Chris Torek and the American National Standards Committee X3,
6.\" on Information Processing Systems.
7.\"
8.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
9.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
10.\" are met:
11.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
12.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
13.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
14.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
15.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
16.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
17.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
18.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
19.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
20.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
21.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
22.\"    without specific prior written permission.
23.\"
24.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
25.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
26.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
27.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
28.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
29.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
30.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
31.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
32.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
33.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
34.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
35.\"
36.\"	$OpenBSD: strtol.3,v 1.9 2000/08/09 15:51:21 aaron Exp $
37.\"
38.Dd June 25, 1992
39.Dt STRTOL 3
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm strtol ,
43.Nm strtoq
44.Nd convert string value to a long or quad_t integer
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Fd #include <stdlib.h>
47.Fd #include <limits.h>
48.Ft long
49.Fn strtol "const char *nptr" "char **endptr" "int base"
50.Pp
51.Fd #include <sys/types.h>
52.Fd #include <stdlib.h>
53.Fd #include <limits.h>
54.Ft quad_t
55.Fn strtoq "const char *nptr" "char **endptr" "int base"
56.Sh DESCRIPTION
57The
58.Fn strtol
59function converts the string in
60.Fa nptr
61to a
62.Li long
63value.
64The
65.Fn strtoq
66function converts the string in
67.Fa nptr
68to a
69.Li quad_t
70value.
71The conversion is done according to the given
72.Fa base ,
73which must be a number between 2 and 36 inclusive or the special value 0.
74.Pp
75The string may begin with an arbitrary amount of whitespace
76(as determined by
77.Xr isspace 3 )
78followed by a single optional
79.Ql +
80or
81.Ql -
82sign.
83If
84.Fa base
85is zero or 16, the string may then include a
86.Ql 0x
87prefix, and the number will be read in base 16; otherwise, a zero
88.Fa base
89is taken as 10 (decimal) unless the next character is
90.Ql 0 ,
91in which case it is taken as 8 (octal).
92.Pp
93The remainder of the string is converted to a
94.Li long
95value in the obvious manner,
96stopping at the first character which is not a valid digit
97in the given base.
98(In bases above 10, the letter
99.Ql A
100in either upper or lower case represents 10,
101.Ql B
102represents 11, and so forth, with
103.Ql Z
104representing 35.)
105.Pp
106If
107.Fa endptr
108is non-null,
109.Fn strtol
110stores the address of the first invalid character in
111.Fa *endptr .
112If there were no digits at all, however,
113.Fn strtol
114stores the original value of
115.Fa nptr
116in
117.Fa *endptr .
118(Thus, if
119.Fa *nptr
120is not
121.Ql \e0
122but
123.Fa **endptr
124is
125.Ql \e0
126on return, the entire string was valid.)
127.Sh RETURN VALUES
128The
129.Fn strtol
130function returns the result of the conversion,
131unless the value would underflow or overflow.
132If an underflow occurs,
133.Fn strtol
134returns
135.Dv LONG_MIN .
136If an overflow occurs,
137.Fn strtol
138returns
139.Dv LONG_MAX .
140In both cases,
141.Va errno
142is set to
143.Er ERANGE .
144.Sh EXAMPLES
145Ensuring that a string is a valid number (i.e., in range and containing no
146trailing characters) requires clearing
147.Va errno
148beforehand explicitly since
149.Va errno
150is not changed on a successful call to
151.Fn strtol ,
152and the return value of
153.Fn strtol
154cannot be used unambiguously to signal an error:
155.Bd -literal -offset indent
156char *ep;
157long lval;
158
159\&...
160
161errno = 0;
162lval = strtol(buf, &ep, 10);
163if (buf[0] == '\e0' || *ep != '\e0')
164	goto not_a_number;
165if (errno == ERANGE && (lval == LONG_MAX || lval == LONG_MIN))
166	goto out_of_range;
167.Ed
168.Pp
169This example will accept
170.Dq 12
171but not
172.Dq 12foo
173or
174.Dq 12\en .
175If trailing whitespace is acceptable, further checks must be done on
176.Va *ep ;
177alternately, use
178.Xr sscanf 3 .
179.Pp
180If
181.Fn strtol
182is being used instead of
183.Xr atoi 3 ,
184error checking is further complicated because the desired return value is an
185.Li int
186rather than a
187.Li long ;
188however, on some architectures integers and long integers are the same size.
189Thus the following is necessary:
190.Bd -literal -offset indent
191char *ep;
192int ival;
193long lval;
194
195\&...
196
197errno = 0;
198lval = strtol(buf, &ep, 10);
199if (buf[0] == '\e0' || *ep != '\e0')
200     goto not_a_number;
201if ((errno == ERANGE && (lval == LONG_MAX || lval == LONG_MIN)) ||
202    (lval > INT_MAX || lval < INT_MIN))
203     goto out_of_range;
204ival = lval;
205.Ed
206.Sh ERRORS
207.Bl -tag -width Er
208.It Bq Er ERANGE
209The given string was out of range; the value converted has been clamped.
210.El
211.Sh SEE ALSO
212.Xr atof 3 ,
213.Xr atoi 3 ,
214.Xr atol 3 ,
215.Xr sscanf 3 ,
216.Xr strtod 3 ,
217.Xr strtoul 3
218.Sh STANDARDS
219The
220.Fn strtol
221function conforms to
222.St -ansiC .
223.Sh BUGS
224Ignores the current locale.
225