'\" t
.\" Copyright 1993, David Metcalfe <david@prism.demon.co.uk>
.\" Copyright 2020, Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
.\" Copyright, the authors of the Linux man-pages project
.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft
.\"
.TH strcmp 3 2026-08-10 "Linux man-pages 6.19"
.SH NAME
strcmp \- strings compare
.SH LIBRARY
Standard C library
.RI ( libc ,\~ \-lc )
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <string.h>
.P
.BI "int strcmp(const char *" s1 ", const char *" s2 );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.BR strcmp ()
function compares the two strings
.I s1
and
.IR s2 ,
as if by calling
.BR memcmp (3).
.P
It is equivalent to
.P
.in +4n
.EX
memcmp(s1, s2, MIN(strlen(s1),strlen(s2))+1)
.EE
.in
.SH RETURN VALUE
See
.BR memcmp (3).
.SH ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
.BR attributes (7).
.TS
allbox;
lbx lb lb
l l l.
Interface	Attribute	Value
T{
.na
.nh
.BR strcmp ()
T}	Thread safety	MT-Safe
.TE
.SH STANDARDS
C11, POSIX.1-2008.
.SH HISTORY
POSIX.1-2001, C89, SVr4, 4.3BSD.
.SH CAVEATS
The locale is not taken into account (for a locale-aware comparison, see
.BR strcoll (3)).
.SH EXAMPLES
The program below can be used to demonstrate the operation of
.BR strcmp ().
.P
.in +4n
.EX
.RB $ " ./strcmp ABC ABC" ;
<str1> and <str2> are equal
.RB $ " ./strcmp ABC AB" ";      # \[aq]C\[aq] is ASCII 67; \[aq]C\[aq] \- \[aq]\[rs]0\[aq] = 67"
<str1> is greater than <str2> (67)
.RB $ " ./strcmp ABA ABZ" ";     # \[aq]A\[aq] is ASCII 65; \[aq]Z\[aq] is ASCII 90"
<str1> is less than <str2> (\-25)
.RB $ " ./strcmp ABJ ABC" ;
<str1> is greater than <str2> (7)
.RB $ " ./strcmp $\[aq]\[rs]201\[aq] A" ";   # 0201 \- 0101 = 0100 (or 64 decimal)"
<str1> is greater than <str2> (64)
.EE
.in
.P
The last example uses
.BR bash (1)-specific
syntax to produce a string containing an 8-bit ASCII code;
the result demonstrates that the string comparison uses unsigned
characters.
.SS Program source
\&
.\" SRC BEGIN (strcmp.c)
.EX
// strcmp.c
// Licensed under GNU General Public License v2 or later.
\&
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
\&
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int res;
\&
    if (argc != 3) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <str1> <str2>\[rs]n", argv[0]);
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
\&
    res = strcmp(argv[1], argv[2]);
\&
    if (res == 0) {
        printf("<str1> and <str2> are equal");
        printf("\[rs]n");
    } else if (res < 0) {
        printf("<str1> is less than <str2> (%d)\[rs]n", res);
    } else {
        printf("<str1> is greater than <str2> (%d)\[rs]n", res);
    }
\&
    exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
.EE
.\" SRC END
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR memcmp (3),
.BR strcasecmp (3),
.BR strcoll (3),
.BR streq (3),
.BR string (3),
.BR strverscmp (3),
.BR wcscmp (3)